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JOANNES DUNS SCOTUS, 0. F. M. 
DOCTOR SUBTILIS 



Franciscans 

and the 

Protestant Revolution 

In England 



BY 

FRANCIS BORGIA STECK, O. F. M. 



Franciscan Herald Press 

Chicago, Illinois 



^-^I<t 



Imprimi permittitur. 



Nihil Ohstat. 



SAMUEL MACKE, O. F. M. 

Minister Provincialis. 



P. L. BIERMANN, 
Censor Librorum. 



Imprimatur. 

4-GEORGIUS GULIELMUS MUNDELEIN, 

Archiepiscopus Chicagiensis. 
Die 2. Martii, 1920. 



COPYRIGHT, 1920, FRANCISCAN HERALD PRESS. 



MAY 2U 1920 
©1A570248 



DEDICATED 

to the 

Sacred Memory 

of 

YENERABLE JOHN DUNS SCOTUS, 

the 

Most Illustrious Member 

of the 

First Province 

of 

English Franciscans 



PART FIRST 

UKDEK THE TUDOES 

1509-1603 



FOREWORD 

In the following pages, an attempt is made to relate the 
story of the English Franciscans during the first century of 
the Protestant Revolution. Among the causes commonly 
assigned, even by Catholic historians, for the rapid spread 
'of Protestantism in Europe is the inactivity and degeneracy 
of the so-called old Orders at the time when the conflict 
began. This serious charge loses much of its significance if 
we remember that for forty years these old Orders bore the 
brunt of the attack against the overwhelming forces of the 
enemy. The fact, too, that more than 150 members of these 
old Orders played a prominent role in the Council of Trent 
shows that their laxism and indifference could not have been 
so great after all. As to the Franciscan Order in particular, 
it may suffice to call to mind that of the above-mentioned 
150 religious 85 were sons of St. Francis, and that, further- 
more, between the years 1520 and 1620, more than 500 
Franciscans shed their blood for the faith in the various 
countries of Europe. 

To disprove the above charge in the case of the Fran- 
ciscans in England, and at the same time to afford whole- 
some reading for all admirers of St. Francis and his Order, 
the present volume is placed before the public. As history 
clearly testifies, the popular mind of England in the be- 
ginning of the religious upheaval was deeply imbued with 
the truly Catholic spirit of the great Saint of Assisi. And 
perhaps nowhere at the time were his followers of the First 
Order so highly esteemed by all classes of society as in 
England. They enjoyed the confidence of the king not less 
than of the masses. Their life and activity were intimately 
bound up with the affairs of the higher circles and with the 



FOREWORD 

needs and aspirations of the lower classes. The former 
sought their favor and support, while the latter looked to 
them for guidance and consolation. 

The writer has endeavored to recount their labors and 
sufferings for the Catholic faith in England in a popular 
way and with due regard to the postulates of modern his- 
torical criticism. Without claiming this to be the first 
treatment of the subject in English, he would designate as 
the special feature of his work the fact that it is a critical 
compilation of practically everything so far written on this 
matter. From the bibliography the reader can form an 
idea of the time and labor expended in gathering, sifting, 
and arranging the available material. The writer shall 
deem himself amply rewarded for his pains if his work, be 
it ever so imperfect, will help to make better known one of 
the many glorious chapters of the history of the Order to 
which he has the privilege of belonging. 

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, October 4, 1919. 

F. B. S. 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Fr, William of England, a disciple of St. Fra/ncis — The 
first Franciscans arrive in England: Fr. Agnellus of 
Pisa and his eight companions — The first friaries: 
Canterbury, London, Oxford, Northampton, Cambridge 
— Marvelous expansion of the province^Character of 
the English Franciscans — Two remarkable features re- 
garding the development of the province — Influence with 
the masses — In the service of State and Church — In the 
field of letters. 

To realize the terrible calamity that befell the English 
Franciscans during the first century of the Protestant Revo- 
lution, the reader must know something of their history 
prior to the outbreak of the storm. For this reason, we shall 
devote the first chapter of our narrative to an account of 
their arrival on English soil and of the subsequent develop- 
ment and activity of the province. Though necessarily 
brief and incomplete, it will show how, throughout the cen- 
turies, the sons of St. Francis, by their sanctity and learn- 
ing as well as by their zeal for the spiritual and temporal 
welfare of the realm, enjoyed the confidence of the English 
nation, so that in the beginning of the upheaval they were 
the most popular and influential religious in England. 

Among the first disciples and companions of St. Francis 
was Fr. William, an Englishman by birth. ^ He was esteemed 
by his brethren both for his learning and for his extraor- 
dinary piety. His soul had deeply imbibed the spirit of 

1. The Martyrologium Franoiscarmm of Fr. Arturus commemorates 
him on March 7, in these terms : "At Assist In Umbria, Blessed William, 
Confessor, a man of extraordinary perfection, who for his sanctity and 
miracles was widely known in life and after death." 



2 FRANCISCANS AND 

the Seraphic Father, and it was very likely owing to his 
burning zeal for immortal souls, that the newly founded 
Franciscan Order found its way to England. During the 
second general chapter, which was held at Whitsuntide, in 
1219, at Our Lady of the Angels, or Porziuncola, near 
Assisi, Fr. William petitioned St. Francis to let also Eng- 
land share the blessings of his new foundation. Accord- 
ingly, the Saint directed Blessed Agnellus of Pisa, who was 
then custos of the French Franciscans and guardian of the 
friary in Paris, to undertake the expedition to England. 
He vested him with the authority of provincial and drew 
up an obedience which read : 

To Brother Agnellus of Pisa of the Tuscan Province of the 
Order of Minors, Brother Francis of Assisi, Minister General, 
though unworthy, salutation. By the merit of wholesome obedience, 
I command thee to go to England and there to exercise the office of 
Minister Provincial. Farewell.^ 

Trusting in Divine Providence and fortified with the 
blessing of his holy Father, Blessed Agnellus accompanied 
by eight friars set out for the new mission field. Of his 
companions, Fr. Richard of Ingworth was a priest, Fr. 
Richard of Devonshire a cleric in minor orders, and Fr. 
William of Esseby a youthful but very pious novice ; these 
three were, like their leader. Englishmen by birth. The 
other five selected for the expedition were lay brothers ; viz., 
FF. Henry of Cervise, Lawrence of Beauvais, William of 
Florence, Melioratus, and James Ultramontanus.^ After 
staying a few months with their brethren in France, the 
little band of nine friars continued their journey to Nor- 
mandy and received a hearty welcome from the monks of 
Fescamp. Supplied by these with the necessary means, 

2. In Ms Annales Minorum (an. 1219, num. 32), Wadding remarks 
that as a perpetual memorial of the founding of the English Province, the 
Franciscan friary of Mount La Verna at his time preserved a picture of 
Blessed Agnellus of Pisa holding his obedience in his hands. The saintly 
friar died in 1232 (1233) ; he was enrolled among the Blessed by Pope 
Leo XIII. The Franciscan Order celebrates his feast on May 7, 

3. Eccleston, Liber de Adventu Minorum iti Angliam in Analecta Fran- 
oiscana. Vol. I, p. 218. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 




Bl. Agnellus of Pisa 



4 FRANCISCANS AND 

they embarked for Dover in Kent, where they landed, prob- 
ably on May 3, 1220.^ Thence they proceeded to Canter- 
bury, about ten miles northwest, and knocked on the portals 

4. Historians do not agree as to the date of the arrival of the first 
Franciscans in England. Eccleston, a member of the Order who lived 
about the year 1340, says that they arrived on September 10, 1224. "In 
the year of the Lord 1224," he begins his narrative, "in the time of the 
Lord Pope Honorius, namely in the same year in which the Rule of St 
Francis was approved by him, in the eighth year of the Lord King Henry, 
son of John, on Tuesday after the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed 
Virgin, which that year fell on Sunday, the Friars Minor first arrived in 
England." The precision and accuracy with which the statement is made 
(September 8, the day of the feast, was actually a Sunday in 1224) would 
settle the question once for all, as it did for Leland, Wood, and most Eng- 
lish historians, were it not that other writers of repute and a number of 
indirect evidences speak against the date. Thus Wadding Annales 
Minorum (an. 1220, num. 58) maintains that the first friars arrived on 
May 3, 1220, adducing Marianus of Florence (d. 1537) as his authority. 
Others who assign the year 1220 are Matthew Paris (d. 1259), Marcus of 
Lisbon (d. 1^91), Francis Harold (d. 1685), and Parkinson^ (d. 1728). 
Some historians assert that the friars arrived about four years after the 
coronation of King Henry III, Thereby they by no means settle the ques- 
tion, because the King was crowned twice, in 1216 and in 1220. Matthew 
Paris, who lived in England at this time as chronologist of the King, 
declares, under the year 1243, that the Franciscans "began to build their 
first habitations scarce four and twenty years ago (See Parkinson, Antiqui- 
ties of the English Franciscans, p. 6). Again, in 1260, St. Bonaventure 
/Irew up an official list of the provinces till then founded in the Order, in 
which, apparently observing the order of their foundation, he places among 
those on this side of the Alps the one in France first and the one in England 
second (See Annales Minorum, an. 1260, num. 14). This seems to show, as 
Parkinson points out (ibidem, p. 7), that the Order had a province in 
England before 1221, since that year others were erected. Furthermore, 
in Glassberger's Chronica (Analecta Franciscana, Vol. II), we read on page 
28: "At the general chapter which was held that same year (1223) at 
St. Mary of Porziuncola, Fr. Caesarius was relieved of his office as minis- 
ter (provincial of Germany), which he had held for two years, and Fr. 
Albert of Pisa, who had just returned from England, was appointed in his 
stead." (See also Parkinson, ibidem, pp. 11, 65.) Finally, we find that 
in two instances Eccleston apparently contradicts his statement as to the 
arrival of the first friars in England. Regarding Fr. Lawrence of Beauvais, 
one of the companions of Blessed Agnellus, he relates the following {Ana- 
lecta Franciscana, Vol. I, p. 219) : "He in the beginning (of the province) 
labored unceasingly according to the Rule ; and having later returned to 
Blessed Francis, he merited frequently to see him and to be consoled by 
his conversations ; finally, the holy Father most freely gave him his tunic, 
and having delighted him with his sweetest blessing sent him back to Eng- 
land." Now, St. Francis died on October 3, 1226. Hence, if Fr. Lawrence 
came to England in 1224, then all that is told of him must have taken 
place within the brief space of two years. Again, Eccleston concludes the 
second chapter of his narrative with the words : "It is worthj' of note 
that in the second year of the administration of Fr. Peter (of Tewkes- 
bury), the fifth minister of England, namely in the thirty-second year since 
the arrival of the brethren in England, there were in the English province 
1,242 friars living in 49 places." Although the old chroniclers do not give 
the years of Fr. Peter's administration. Father Cuthbert (The Friars and 
how they came to England, p. 141) assumes that the year suggested In 
Eccleston's note is 1251. If this is correct, then it is clear that the first 
Franciscans did not arrive in England in 1224. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 5 

of the Benedictine priory of the Holy Trinity. The monks 
had probably been apprised of their coming, since the friars 
found no difficulty in identifying themselves and receiving 
food and lodging. 

Leaving his brethren at the priory, Fr. Agnellus went 
to the king and, as was required at the time, presented the 
credentials drawn up and signed by the Pope.^ Henry III 
had already heard of St. Francis and of the holy life he 
and his followers were leading. Hence he received the 
provincial with every mark of esteem and readily permitted 
the friars to settle in Canterbury. Thanking the Benedic- 
tines for their kindness, the Franciscans took up their tem- 
porary abode in the Poor Priests' Hospice, where they 
remained till the following September. 

In that month, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal 
Stephen Langton, who ever after proved a devoted friend 
and protector of the friars, raised the provincial to the 
dignity of the priesthood and conferred subdeaconship on 
Fr. Richard of Devonshire. Soon after these ordinations. 
Blessed Agnellus commissioned Fr. Richard of Ingworth and 
Fr. Richard of Devonshire with two lay brothers, FF. 
Henry and Melioratus, to establish houses in London and 
Oxford, while he with the four remaining friars remained 
at Canterbury, in order to begin the erection of the first 
friary on English soil.^ Alexander, the master of the Poor 
Priests' Hospice, had presented them with a plot of ground 
and urged the citizens to contribute toward the erection of 

5. The credentials which St. Francis obtained from the Pope read : 
"Honorius, Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, to Archbishops, Abbots, 
Deans, Archdeacons, and other prelates of church — Whereas Our beloved 
sons, Brother Francis and his companions of the life and institute of Friars 
Minor, despising the vanities of the world, have made choice of a way of 
life deservedly approved by the Roman Church, and sowing the seeds of 
the word of God, are traveling after the example of the Apostles through 
divers nations : We entreat you all, and exhort you in the Lord and com- 
mand you, by the Apostolic letters addressed to you, that, whensoever 
members of said institute bearing these presents shall think fit to come to 
you, you receive them as Catholics and true believers ; and that, for the 
honor of God and the respect you owe to Us, you show them favor and 
courtesy. Given at Rome on the third day of the ides of June, in the third 
year of Our Pontificate." — Annales Minorum, Vol. I, an. 1219, num. 28. 

6. Our chief sources of information regarding the erection of the first 
friaries are Eccleston and Parkinson. 



6 FRANCISCANS AND 

a house for them. His appeal was not in vain, and soon 
a neat little friary was ready to receive the sons of St. 
Francis. From Antony Wood, the Oxford antiquary, we 
learn that the friars held this place in the name of the 
Canterbury Corporation, since their Rule forbade them to 
possess temporalities. In this house, which was later dedi- 
cated to St. Francis, the friars lived for almost fifty years, 
laboring for the spiritual welfare of their generous bene- 
factors and educating their boys in the adjoining school. 
In 1270, John Diggs, a civil official of Canterbury, had the 
friars take up their abode on Bennewith, an island in the 
double channel of the river Stour. It was this friary which 
late in the fifteenth century was given to the reformed mem- 
bers of the province, and which they inhabited tiU the time 
of its suppression under Henry VIII. 

When Fr. Richard with his three companions arrived in 
London, the people vied with one another in giving them a 
hearty reception. After spending a fortnight with the 
Dominicans at Holborn,^ the Franciscans went to Cornhill, 
where John Travers, Sheriff of London, had procured and 
fitted out a house for their use. So greatly were the citizens 
edified at the charming simplicity and self-denial of the 
friars, that they soon had a more spacious and comfortable 
home to offer them. John Irwin, a prosperous merchant of 
the city and afterwards a lay brother of the Order, pre- 
sented them with a tract of land in the Shambles of St. 
Nicholas, a place where the poor and destitute were especial- 
ly numerous. Here in the space of five years, through the 
charity of the people and the city officials, a church and 
a friary were erected. 

Leaving the two lay brothers in London, Fr. Richard of 
Ingworth and Fr. Richard of Devonshire, about the feast 
of All Saints of the same year, 1220, set out for Oxford, 
where, at the time, King Henry was holding court. Being 
strangers in the country, they lost their way. Night was 

7. It is probable that the Dominicans had come to England in 1219. 
See Parkinson, p. 16. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 7 

coming on, and they knew not where to turn for lodging. 
Finally, they came to a manor house that belonged to the 
Benedictine Abbey of Abbington. They knocked at the 
neighboring priory, and the porter, though astonished at 
their strange dress and strange story, was civil enough to 
admit them. But the prior, from a rather unworthy motive, 
treated the poor friars harshly and turned them out into 
the night. They had not gone far, when one of the monks, 
taking pity on them, had them called back, set refreshments 
before them, and led them to a hayloft, where they might 
rest their weary bones. That night, the good monk had a 
dreadful dream. He saw how Christ sitting in judgment 
commanded the inhospitable prior and monks of Abbington 
to be strangled, and how he himself found rescue in the 
fond embrace of St. Francis. On awaking, he hastened to 
the prior and found him struggling with death. Now he 
related his dream to the assembled brethren. All were filled 
with fear, especially when they went to the barn and found 
that the friars had gone. Some time later, both the prior 
and the abbot of Abbington joined the ranks of St. 
Francis.^ 

After spending a week with the Dominicans at Oxford, 
they answered the summons of Richard Miller, a wealthy 
citizen, who offered them a little house situated near the 
parish church of St. Ebbe. During the ensuing Christmas 
season. Blessed Agnellus visited Oxford and appointed Fr. 
William of Esseby guardian. In the following summer, the 
friary was enlarged. It is said that the king himself broke 
ground for the new building, and that men of high stand- 
ing in the realm, not only advanced the work by generous 
alms, but also lent manual assistance, carrying stones and 
mortar to the masons. The king also ordered that the friary- 
be built as near as possible to the royal palace, that he 
might the more easily communicate with the friars. In this 
convent, which grew in dimensions as years went on, the 
sons of St. Francis dwelt till 1539, when it was demolished 

8. This incident is related by Antony Wood. See Parkinson, p. 14. 



8 FRANCISCANS AND 

by order of Henry VIII. For three centuries, the clerics 
of the Order were sent there to study and to attend the 
famous university of Oxford, so that we may justly term 
this friary the nursery of Franciscan learning and the most 
famous convent in the English province. 

Thus, before the end of the year 1220, the Franciscans 
had established themselves at Canterbury, London, and Ox- 
ford. Meanwhile, as is very probable, other friars, hearing 
of the cordial reception accorded Blessed Agnellus and his 
companions, took heart and set out for England.^ Among 
these were Fr. Albert of Pisa, brother of Blessed Agnellus, . 
Fr. Henry of Pisa and FF. Peter and Thomas, both of 
Spanish birth. With their arrival, the provincial was able 
to found new houses. Accordingly, FF. Richard of Ingworth 
and Richard of Devonshire went to Northampton and ob- 
tained lodging in a hospital in the parish of St. Giles, until 
a friary was ready to receive them. The first guardian of 
this foundation was Fr. Peter the Spaniard. Not long after, 
the Franciscans settled in Cambridge. For a time they 
lived in an old synagogue that adjoined the city prison. 
But finding the noisy surroundings an obstacle to the proper 
discharge of their religious exercises, they purchased with 
the ten marks sent them by the king a plot of ground near 
by, on which the people erected for them a little oratory 
* ' as a carpenter may build in a day. ' ' Fr. Thomas of Spain 
became the first guardian of this place. 

The next twenty-five years saw Franciscan friaries 
spring up in all parts of England. From Eccleston we 
learn that in the second year of the provincialship of Fr. 
Peter Tewkesbury, probably 1251, they were 49 in number. 
At the general chapter, in 1260, the English Province was 
registered as comprising seven custodies. ^° At the end of 
the next century, Fr. Bartholomew of Pisa, in his celebrated 

9. Parkinson, p. 11. The fact, as the author observes, may explain 
the divergency of opinion among historians regarding the date when the 
first Franciscans arrived in England. 

10. Annales Minorum, Vol. II, an. 1260, num. 14, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 9 

Liher Conformitatiim,^'^ enumerated these same seven cus- 
todies, adding the names of the friaries which at the time 
amounted to 60. The names of the custodies with their 
respective friaries are as follows : 

1. London, nine friaries; viz., London, Canterbury, Win- 

chelsea, Southampton, Ware, Lewes, Chichester, 
Salisbury, Winchester; 

2. York, seven friaries ; viz., York, Doncaster, Lincoln, Bos- 

ton, Beverley, Scarborough, Grimsby; 

3. Cambridge, nine friaries ; viz., Cambridge, Norwich, Col- 

chester, Bury St. Edmunds, Dunwich, Walsingham, 
Yarmouth, Ipswich, Lynn; 

4. Bristol, nine friaries; viz., Bristol, Gloucester, Bridge- 

water, Hereford, Exeter, Carmarthen, Bodmin, Dor- 
chester, Cardiff; 

5. Oxford, eight friaries; viz., Oxford, Reading, Bedford, 

Stamford, Nottingham, Northampton, Leicester, 
Grantham ;. 

6. Newcastle, nine friaries; viz., Newcastle, Dundee, Dum- 

fries, Haddington, Carlisle, Hartlepool, Berwick, 
Roxburgh, Richmond; 

7. Worcester, nine friaries; viz., Worcester, Preston, 

Broughton,^^ Shrewsbury, Coventry, Chester, Here- 
ford,^3 Hamely,^* Stafford. 

In the following towns, friaries were erected probably 
in the course of the fifteenth century ;^^ at least they are 
not on the lists drawn up by Bartholomew of Pisa and by 
Wadding : 

Anglesey (Llanfaes near Aylesbury in Buckingham- 
Beaumaris) in Wales, shire, 

11. Analecta Francisoana, Vol. IV, pp. 545 seq. In his Amvales 
Minorum (Vol. IV, an. 1400, num. 13), Wadding places side by side three 
lists of English friaries as he found them in three ancient codices. While 
the three codices have 7 custodies, but twa have 60 friaries, the third 
registering only 58. 

12. Here Parkinson places Bridgenorth. 

13. Parkinson says Litchfield. 

14. Lancaster, according to Parkinson. 

15. See Parkinson, Part II, pp. 37 seq. 



10 FRANCISCANS AND 

Brougham in Westmoreland, Penrith in Cumberland, 

Greenwich in Kent, Plymouth in Devonshire, 

Ludlow in Shropshire, Pontefract in Yorkshire, 

Maidstone in Kent, Stoke in Somersetshire, 

Newwark in Nottingham- Warrington in Lancashire, 

shire, Becmachen on the Isle of 

Man.^« 

If the historian of to-day finds it difficult to reconcile 
contradictory statements as to the religious houses that 
constituted the English Province, he will try in vain to 
determine the number of friars that belonged to the prov- 
ince. Among the first to join it were, according to Eccles- 
ton, FF. Solomon, William of London, Joyce of Comhill, 
John, and Philip ; then certain Masters of the university as 
Walter de Burgh, Richard the Norman, Vincent of Coven- 
try, Adam de Marisco; and finally two Benedictines and 
four knights. ^^ How rapidly the province increased in 
membership, may be judged from the fact that thirty-two 
years after the arrival of the first Franciscans, it numbered 
1,242 friars.^® To some extent, the number of friaries exist- 
ing in 1260 permits us to form an estimate of the number 
of religious who inhabited them. Professor Little reckons 
that shortly before the Black Death, the English Province 
numbered some 2,000 friars.^^ But their ranks were greatly 
thinned, when the dreadful plague visited the country. This 
fact is confirmed by Gasquet, when he writes, "Of the 
Franciscans at Winchester and Southampton, only three 
clerics could be presented for ordination in 1347 and 1348. 
And before the death of the Bishop which occurred in 1359, 
only two more were presented. ' '^° 

It was, no doubt, this marvelous growth of the province 
that induced Matthew Paris, who died in 1259, to write re- 

16. This last friary is mentioned by Thaddeus, The Franciscans in 
England, p. 16, who adds, on the authority of Tanner and Dugdale, that it 
was founded in 1373. 

17. Eccleston in Analecta Franciscarva, Vol. I, pp. 221 scq. 

18. Ibidem. 

19. Little, Studies in English Franciscan History, p. 71. 

20. Gasquet, Black Death, p. 132. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 11 

garding the friars, ''All England was soon filled and re- 
plenished with these men, and not only the larger towns and 
cities, but the very villages and hamlets frequented by 
them."^^ Parkinson says that "their exemplary lives and 
disinterested comportment gained so upon all ranks of peo- 
ple, that their Order increased to an almost incredible num- 
ber of friars, and their convents were built and enlarged 
in due proportion. ' '^^ The same historian brings the names 
of about 350 English Franciscans who, during the three 
centuries before the so-called Reformation, distinguished 
themselves either by their sanctity or by their activity and 
influence as provincials, preachers, bishops, legates, or as 
lecturers and doctors at Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris. 
Casually, he mentions groups of friars; for instance, when 
he says under the year 1220 that "many Englishmen peti- 
tioned to be admitted into the Order," and again, on the 
authority of Harpsfield, remarks that "many of the Bene- 
dictine monks, of the Augustinan friars, nay and of the 
very Carthusians petitioned and were admitted into the 
Order of St. Francis. "^^ Finally, it is worthy of special 
notice that, excepting the pioneers of the province, nothing 
at all is recounted regarding the lay brothers whose secluded 
life did not bring them before the public and into the an- 
nals of the province. From all this it may justly be in- 
ferred that the English Franciscans were very numerous, 
and that Brewer has reason to call the expansion of the 
province ' ' an instance of religious organization and propa- 
gandism unexampled in the annals of the world. ' '^* 

The early Franciscans in England were men of sterling 
piety and of untiring zeal for the spiritual and temporal 
welfare of the people. Complete detachment from earthly 
comforts combined with a cheerful and winning disposition 
won for them the esteem and confidence of all classes. In 
selecting their field of labor, the friars made no distinction 

21. See Parkinson, p. 30. 

22. Ibidem, p. 17. 

23. Ibidem, p. 18. 

24. Monumenta Frandscana, Vol. I, Preface, p. XLI. 



12 FRANCISCANS AKD 

between ricli and poor, high and low, so that serf and out- 
cast vied with king and noble in welcoming them in their 
midst and in providing them with the necessaries of life. 
At the ordination of Fr. Solomon, as Eccleston relates, the 
archdeacon called upon him with the words, '^ Brother 
Solomon, of the Order of the Apostles, may step forth," 
thereby unwittingly forecasting the future activity of the 
province.^^ For, as history shows, in their private life and 
in their exterior labors, the sons of St. Francis in England 
were true apostles sent to instruct and confirm the people 
in their faith and to imbue them with the true spirit of 
Christ. By word and example they showed the masses how 
to love God and their immortal soul above all things, how 
to submit to lawful authority in Church and State, how to 
foster love and harmony among themselves, how to forgive 
injuries, how to sympathize with sufferers, in a word, how 
to realize in their daily transactions those ideals of Christian 
perfection that have the promise of eternal life. 

From the scanty records that escaped the vandalism of 
the sixteenth century, it is clear that the English Francis- 
cans were ardent adherents of Lady Poverty. Penniless 
they came to England and penniless they lived and labored 
there. Their first friaries, erected almost without exception 
in the poorest and meanest quarters of the cities, were little 
better than hovels. "In all instances," Brewer maintains, 
''the poverty of their buildings corresponded with those of 
the surrounding district : their living and lodging no better 
than the poorest among whom they settle. ' '-^ But even these 
humble dwellings the friars refused to possess as their own, 
declaring that they held them in the name of corporations. 
Likewise, in the beginning at least, they fairly rejected all 
lands and revenues, and depended for their subsistence on 
the liberality of the people whom they served. If it is cer- 
tain that in after years wealthy benefactors bequeathed 
landed property and annual incomes to them, it is equally 

25. Eccleston in Analecta Franciscana, Vol. I. p. 222. 

26. Monumenta Franciscana, Vol. I, Preface, p. XIX. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 13 

certain that these were not welcomed, must less sought for, 
by the friars and were received by them only as alms to 
which they should have no legal claim. 

Many interesting and edifying anecdotes are related, 
showing how the friars loved and practiced the vow of 
poverty. In London, for instance, the partitions of their 
original friary were filled out with dried grass. Before 
settling in Oxford, Blessed Agnellus gave orders that the 
walls of the infirmary were not to exceed a man 's height ; 
neither did this friary have a guest room until the time of 
Fr. Albert of Pisa, who was provincial in 1223. At Shrews- 
bury, Fr. William Nottingham, the fourth provincial, com- 
manded that the stone walls in the dormitory be removed 
and mud walls put in their stead. The friars at Cambridge 
did not even have mantles to shield themselves against the 
cold. At another place, Fr. Solomon was, on one occasion, 
''so starved with cold that he believed himself nigh unto 
death ; and the brethren having not wherewith to warm him, 
holy charity suggested to them a remedy ; for all the brethren 
gathered together and huddled about him. ' '^^ 

This extreme poverty and lack of every comfort did not \/ 
make the friars sullen and inaccessible. On the contrary, 
as they were poor and unassuming in their habits, so they 
were jovial and winning in their dealings with others. 
Their very poverty often proved a source of merriment and 
geniality. Thus Eccleston tells us how one evening, as was 
customary on days of fast, the brethren were gathered 
around the kitchen fire to drink of the beverage which, most 
probably, had been sent them by some benefactor. But the 
amount was not sufficient for all, so that ' ' he esteemed him- 
self fortunate who could in a friendly way seize the cup from 
another." At another time it happened that two brethren 
came to one of the friaries on a visit. Having no refresh- 
ments to place before them, the guardian procured a measure 
of ale on credit. Now, when the jug was passed around, the 
members of the community indeed put it to their lips, so as 

27. Eccleston in Analecta Franoiscana, Vol. I, passim. 



14 FRANCISCANS ANT) 

not to embarrass their guests ; but they did not drink of its 
contents, because they feared there was not enough for all. 
At Oxford, the young friars had to be severely reprimanded 
for laughing out of season.-^ And Fr. Peter of Tewkesbury 
once told a Friar Preacher that he thought bodily health 
depended on three things ; viz., food, sleep, and fun.^^ 

A remarkable feature of the development of the province 
is the fact that so many persons of exalted station in the 
English realm were instrumental in erecting the friaries.^^ 
Henry III proved a constant friend and benefactor of the 
Franciscans; and it was in great part owing to his long 
reign that they gained so firm a footing and made such rapid 
progress on English soil. At least six of the first friaries 
were founded either entirely or partly by him. In this work 
he was seconded especially by Cardinal Stephen Langton, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and by Dr. Henry Langton, the 
Cardinal's brother. The chief founder of the house at 
Worcester was the Earl of Warwick ; while the one at Pres- 
ton owed its founding to Edward of Lancaster, the brother 
of Henry III. The Bishop of Litchfield invited the friars 
to his episcopal city and had a house built for them. Simi- 
larly, at Salisbury, it was the bishop who erected the Fran- 
ciscan friary on the site presented for that purpose by the 
king. About 1233, the Countess of Leicester set up a con- 
vent for them at Ware. Edward I, in the third year of his 
reign, built a spacious friary at Cambridge, and, in 1288, 
another at Libourne in Aquitaine, France. Here we may 
also mention that during the Hundred Years War between 
England and France, the English Franciscans had several 
houses both in France and in Scotland. The one at Bor- 
deaux, for instance, was built by Edward HI. Queen Mar- 
garet, consort of Edward I, caused the old church in London, 
which had been erected about a centuiy before by the lord 
mayor, to be torn down and replaced by a new one, she her- 

28. Ibidem, passim. 

29. Cuthbert, The Friars and Jiow they came to England, p. 236, from 
a marginal note in the Cottonian MMS. edition of Eccleston. 

30. The following facts are taken principally from Parkinson. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 15 

self contributing 2,000 marks. At York and Lincoln, Henry 
Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, together with his chaplain was their 
principal benefactor, while at Scarborough and Colchester it 
was again the king, Edward II, who gave freely toward their 
support. His son, Edward III, founded or endowed the 
four houses at Walsingham, Berwick, Greenwich and Maid- 
stone. About the same time, through the munificence of 
Edward, the Black Prince, a friary was founded at Coventry. 
We have already mentioned that the Franciscans had 
scarcely settled in England when men from every station in 
life asked to be admitted into their ranks. It is surprising, 
indeed, how many in the course of time exchanged their 
wealth and worldly distinction for the poor and lowly living 
of the friar.^^ Before their entrance into the Order, Fr. 
William had been in the service of the Lord Justiciary of 
England; Fr. Zarmestre, a distinguished knight; Fr. Mat- 
thew Gayton, a wealthy and influential esquire. With Fr. 
Vincent of Coventry came his brother Henry and later 
William of York, both eminent doctors of the university. 
In 1230, Robert of Hendred, abbot of the Benedictine mon- 
astery at Abbington, gave up his costly raiment for the hum- 
ble garb of St. Francis. His example attracted John of 
Reading, abbot of the celebrated monastery of Canons 
Regular at Osney, near Oxford. In 1239, Ralph of Maid- 
stone followed in the footsteps of these two prelates and, 
after resigning his episcopal see of Hereford, joined the 
Order and led a retired life in the friary at Gloucester. 
Many doctors and professors of Oxford and Cambridge took 
the habit during the first half of the fourteenth century. 
Among them Parkinson mentions John Winchelsey, Regi- 
nald Lamboume, John Lisle, John Waler, Oliver Stanwey. 
In 1325, Lord Robert Fitzwater entered the Order ; in 1343, 
Lord Baron Lisle ; and in 1347, Sir Robert Nigram, a famous 
knight. Finally, in 1386, William Scharshille, and in 1426, 
a certain Clopton, who had both held the office of Lord Chief 
Justice of England, renounced the honor and preferments 

31. What follows is likewise based chiefly on Parkinson. 



16 FRANCISCANS AND 

of the world and became followers of the Poor Man of Assisi. 
The activity and influence of the English Franciscans 
during the pre-Reformation period fills one of the brightest 
pages of the history of the Order. About the year 1228, 
Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, wrote to Pope 
Gregory IX : 

Your Holiness may be sure that inestimable blessings are 
reaching our people through the said (Franciscan) friars. For 
they illuminate our whole land with the bright light of their preach- 
ing and teaching. Their saintly manner of living strongly incites 
to contempt of the world and voluntary poverty, to preserving 
humility even amid dignity and power, to maintaining complete 
submission toward prelates and toward the Head of the Church, to 
patience amid tribulation, to self-denial amid riches, and, in a 
word, to the exercises of every virtue. Oh, if your Holiness could 
see with what devotion and humility the people run to hear from 
them the word of life, to confess their sins, to be instructed in the 
rules of living, and how the clergy and the regulars have improved 
by imitating them, you would indeed say that the light has risen 
unto them that sit in the region of the shadow of death! The 
zeal of your Holiness will therefore provide that, so great a light 
having been extinguished or darkened, which the true light may 
avert, the ancient darkness of error and sin, already greatly dis- 
pelled by the rays of their light, may not overshadow and envelope 
the land which before others is especially dear to you.'' 

History tells us how during the succeeding centuries the 
friars merited this enviable eulogy. 

When the Franciscans began to live and labor in Eng- 
land, serious and critical problems confronted the State as 
well as the Church. The crusades had introduced new ideas 
on society and politics, which gradually undermined the 
feudal system of the Middle Ages. Especially among the 
country folk, till then happy and prosperous under the be- 
nign influence of the monastic institutions, a spirit of inde- 
pendence and discontent was plainly visible. In the towns 
whither they fled, their spiritual needs could not be suffi- 
ciently provided for by the limited number of secular 
clergy, while their own inexperience in matters commercial 

32. Felder, Studien im Franziskanerorden, p. 271. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 17 

and industrial soon put them at the mercy of the wealthy 
and selfish merchant class. Add to this the constant clashes 
between popular rights and royal pretensions, and it is easy 
to understand how in the towns the lower classes soon fell a 
prey to poverty, ignorance, and vice, and even began to drift 
away from the Church. 

Here then the sons of St. Francis found an extensive field 
for action. From their humble friaries, erected in the 
poorest and meanest districts of the populous towns, they 
went forth like angels of peace to proclaim their message of 
love and penance to all, and thus in time bridged over the 
gulf that lay between the upper and the lower classes. We 
are told that, on Sundays and holydays, they would assist 
the neighboring parish priests in administering the sacra- 
ments, preaching the word of God, and catechizing the chil- 
dren. At other times, they would preach on the open 
street, where crowds eagerly drank in their words of in- 
struction and consolation. The outcasts of society, who in 
the suburbs were leading a life of spiritual desolation and 
bodily squalor, seem to have had a special claim on their 
loving solicitude. By word and example they showed the 
neglected poor how to serve God even in poverty and dis- 
tress, taught the wealthy the proper use of temporal goods, 
and exhorted all to live in peace and harmony and in loyal 
submission to rightful authority. ''The effect of such men 
upon the neglected masses of the population may easily be 
imagined. . . . Lessons of patience and endurance fell 
with greater persuasion and tenderness from lips of men 
who were living and voluntary examples of what they 
taught. "^^ If in later years, especially at the outbreak of 
the Protestant Revolution the English nation at large was 
devoted to the Holy See, it must be ascribed in great part 
to the sons of St. Francis, who were ever the fearless preach- 
ers and defenders of papal supremacy. 

As a means of popular instruction and edification, the 
mystery and miracle plays were earnestly fostered by the 

33. Monumenta Franciscana, Vol. I, Preface, p. XXVIII, 



18 FRANCISCANS AND 

friars. ''In organizing and acting miracle plays," Hew- 
lett writes, ' ' the Franciscan friars took a decided lead, and 
so far was it reckoned in late times one of the recognized 
callings of the Order that the corporation registers of York 
tell lis that in 1426 William Melton, of the Order of Friars 
Minor, 'Professor of Holy Pageantry and a most famous 
preacher of the Word of God, ' made arrangements respect- 
ing the Corpus Christi play in that city, evidently as man- 
ager of the performance. ' '^* The celebrated Coventry cycle 
of forty-eight plays is entirely their work. . On appointed 
days, large crowds would gather at Coventry and in the 
neighboring towns to witness these representations of the 
OJd and New Testament. "These pageants," Dugdale in- 
forms us, "were sacred representations wherein were ex- 
hibited the histories of the Old and New Testaments, the 
persons therein mentioned being brought upon the stage, 
and whom the poet, according to his fancy, introduced talk- 
ing to one another in old English metre, composed by the 
Friars Minor, and acted by their direction. ' '^^ 

Although information is very meager regarding their 
activity during the Black Death, which devastated Europe 
in the first half of the fourteenth century, we may form an 
estimate, if we call to mind that their friaries stood in the 
neglected and unhealthy districts where the plague natural- 
ly raged most fiercely. What Howlett asserts regarding the 
Franciscan Order in general is also true of its members in 
England. "It is not disputed," he writes, "that in the 
awful visitations of the Black Death in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, the Franciscan Friars in different parts of Europe 
perished literally by the thousands through their devoted at- 
tentions to the sick and dying. ' '^^ That many of the Eng- 
lish Province fell victims to their charitable ministrations 
may be also gathered from the fact that, as we have stated 
above, so few clerics could be presented for ordinations in 
the years immediately following the dreadful visitation. 

34. Ibidem, Vol. II, Preface, p. XXVIII. 

35. See Franciscan Annals (Pantasaph, England), Vol. XL, p. 168. 

36. Monumenta Franciscanaj Vol. II, Preface, p. XXXIV. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 19 

In their zeal for the welfare of the people, the friars 
knew no distinction of creed or nationality. A striking in- 
stance of this we find toward the end of the thirteenth cen- 
tury. Growing complaints against the Jews, made especially 
by the merchant class, caused Edward I to take severe 
measures against them. When the persecution was at its 
height and a general massacre had been decreed, the Fran- 
ciscans intervened and, by promising to work for the con- 
version of the Jews, succeeded in obtaining from the king 
a revocation of the decree. ''For," as Parkinson explains, 
"the Franciscans had generally showed themselves so free 
from all mercenary regards, that they seemed to have no 
other interest in this world, besides working out their own 
salvation and laboring to contribute to that of their neigh- 
bor." In later years, Fr. Nicholas de Lyra, himself of 
Jewish extraction, worked zealously for the conversion of 
Jews in England. By his writings and sermons, it is said, 
he brought six thousand of his people to the fold of Christ.^' 

This heroic and disinterested zeal for the social uplifting 
of the lower and middle classes could not escape the notice 
of the wealthy and powerful. The activity of the English 
friars in State and Church affairs is perhaps unexampled 
in the history of the Order. Hardly were they settled in 
Canterbury, when Henry III appointed Bl. Agnellus of 
Pisa to his Privy Council. In 1232, when Richard, the Earl 
Marshal, was heading a rebellion of the barons against the 
king, this friar as the king's plenipotentiary treated with 
the powerful Earl and persuaded him to accept the king's 
proposals of peace and to put an end to the bloody strife.^^ 
Fr. Adam de Marisco was on intimate terms with Simon of 
Montfort and with Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln. 
His letters show what an influence he had on the efforts of 
these two men for the ecclesiastical and political welfare of 
the country.^® It is not improbable that in Franciscan cir- 

37. Parkinson, pp. 99, 161. 38. Ibidem, pp. 9, 34. 

39. Brewer published these letters in Monumenta Franciscana as he 
found them in the Cottonian MMS. They are of historical interest and 
importance, since they throw abundant light on the activity and influence 
of the early English Franciscans. 



20 FRANCISCANS AND 

cles those principles of civil liberty first were clearly formu- 
lated which had already been laid down in the celebrated 
Magna Charta, and which in time led to the constitutional 
monarchy of England.*^ The letters show also how their 
author encouraged and counseled the Bishop of Lincoln in 
reforming the clerg;^^ of his large diocese. In 1241, after a 
meeting of the English bishops at Oxford, Franciscan and 
Dominican friars were sent to France, in order to rouse the 
people against Emperor Frederic II, and to remonstrate 
with him for illtreating the Pope.^^ ''Many other Fran- 
ciscans," says Parkinson, ''were employed in the several 
expeditions of the English to the holy wars ; they being es- 
teemed the most proper persons for that work, both because 
they were famous preachers and inured to mortifications 
and hardships, and likewise disengaged from any interest of 
this world. "*^ Thus, for instance. Prince Edward, son of 
Henry III, selected Fr. Robert Turneham to accompany 
him on a crusade against the Turks and to serve as chaplain 
of the army he had fitted out for the expedition.*^ 

About the year 1286, Edward I appointed Fr. John of 
Stamford, who had been chosen for the archbishopric of 
Dublin, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and later he sent him 
as ambassador to the imperial court. This same king placed 
such confidence in the loyalty and discretion of Fr. William 
of Gajmesborough, that in 1295 he sent him together with 
Fr. Hugh of Manchester to the King of France, in order to 
settle some disagreement concerning English territory in 
Aquitaine. Later, Fr. William, who had meanwhile become 
Bishop of Worcester, was again emploj^ed by Edward in 
negotiating the marriage between the Black Prince, the heir 
of the English throne, and Isabel, the daughter of Philip 
the Fair of France.** Repeatedly, in the course of Parkin- 
son 's narrative, we find the names of Franciscans whom the 
kings of England selected as their confessors and advisers. 

40. Holzapfel, Geschichte des Fratiziskanerordens, p. 234. 

41. Gasquet, Henry III and the Church, p. 200. 

42. Parkinson, p. 98. 

43. Ibidem, p. 87. 44. Ibidem, pp. 98, 125. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 21 

After the civil war, in the beginning of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, a great disaster befell the friars. We mention this 
incident only to show how little they cared for royal favors 
when truth and justice came in question. When it was 
rumored that Richard II, who had been dethroned and mur- 
dered, was still among the living and ready to reclaim his 
throne, the friars credited the report and openly espoused 
his cause. This so exasperated the usurper Henry IV of 
Lancaster, that he had several of their number cast into 
prison. When Fr. Richard, guardian of Leicester, was 
asked by an official what he would do if the dead king were 
really alive, he answered that he would fight for him till 
death. This bold reply cost him his life. Subsequently, 
eleven more friars were imprisoned and executed for the 
same reason. After matters had cleared up, however, and 
Henry IV realized that the Franciscans had acted in good 
faith and from the start had been willing to acknowledge 
him their king provided Richard were dead, he reinstated 
them in their former favor and gave orders that they should 
be no longer molested for the stand they had taken.*^ 

In 1235, and again in 1240, the provincial of the English 
Franciscans received a letter from the Pope urging the 
friars to use their influence in behalf of the crusades ; and 
in 1254, Pope Innocent IV appointed two of their number 
to collect subsidies for the Holy Land.*^ In fact, the Popes 
not less than the kings repeatedly employed them in this 
noble cause. Again, how high they stood in the estimation 
of Church and of State dignitaries, we see from the fact 
that so large a number were vested with episcopal dignities 
in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Italy. Parkin- 
son brings the names of at least thirty-five friars who be- 
came bishops. Of these, the most distinguished for sanctity, 
learning, and influence was Fr. John Peckham, whom Pope 
Nicholas III appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and Pri- 
mate of England. In 1246, Fr. John Anglicus became papal 

45. Ibidem, p. 185. 

46. Annates Minorum, Vol. I, an. 1235, num. 27 ; an. 1240, num. 20 ; 
Vol. II, an. 1254, num. 42. 



22 FRANCISCANS AND 

legate in England with full powers over all prelates of the 
realm. A few years later, this same office was held by Fr. 
John of Kent and by Fr. Adam de Marisco. In 1441, the 
Holy See granted Henry VI permission to have Francis- 
cans reside constantly at court and to send them to foreign 
rulers on important State affairs. During the Exile of the 
Papacy, Fr. Thomas Travesham and Fr. "Walter Cotton, 
two men of exceptional learning, were summoned to Avignon 
by Benedict XII and appointed papal plenipotentiaries.^^ 

In their loyalty to the Church and their zeal for the 
propagation and preservation of the faith in England, the 
Franciscans did not entirely forget the foreign missions. 
As early as 1238, Fr. Adam of Exeter was sent by Pope 
Gregory IX to preach the gospel among the Saracens ; but 
he died before reaching his destination. In 1337, a certain 
Fr. William, likewise of the English Province, suffered cruel 
martyrdom for the faith at the hands of the Saracens, at 
Salmastre in Persia. Finally, in 1392, Fr. Roger of Eng- 
land, engaged on the missions among the Tatars in Asia, 
was sent by the Vicar Apostolic to the Pope to solicit more 
missionaries.*^ 

WHien John Wyclif was perverting England by his.heret- 
ical teaching, the Franciscans of Oxford were among the 
first to oppose him. Learned theologians assembled at Ox- 
ford in 1381, and Fr. John Tyssington, a leading doctor of 
the university, was foremost in condemning Wyclif 's doc- 
trine regarding the Blessed Eucharist. The following year, 
on May 18, an ecclesiastical court was held at Blackfriars in 
London. Here again five Franciscan doctors of Oxford and 
Cambridge w^re among the signers of the twenty-four con- 
clusions against the heretic. After the death of Wyclif, 
Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, held a con- 
vocation at St. Paul's in London, and publicly condemned 
the eighteen heretical propositions which Fr. William Wood- 
ford had drawn up from Wyclif 's famous Trialogue, 

47. Parkinson, pp. 67, 72, 199, 154, 155. 

48. Ibidem, pp. 41, 154, 180. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 23 

Equally zealous in this affair was Fr. Thomas Wolward. 
Finally, when a second synod was held at St. Paul's, in 
1408, to check the spread of the heresy, Fr. William Butler 
was chosen to preach before the distin^ished assembly.^® 

Volumes could be written on what the English Fran- 
ciscans achieved in the field of letters. We must confine 
ourselves to a few facts and names. ''The English nation 
has given to the Franciscan Order a greater number of 
eminently learned men than all the other nations taken 
together. Yes, if we consider only the leaders of the 
Minorite schools, they all with the exception of St. Bona- 
venture belong to England. ' '^^ Beginning with Oxford, al- 
most all the friaries erected before 1254 had their school. 
In that year, the province numbered 33 or 34 lecturers, a 
fact which, as Felder points out, seems to imply that most 
of the friaries at the time were in need of them. Wood's 
incomplete catalog registers 67 Franciscans who had been 
public professors at Oxford before 1350 ; and according to 
another catalog, 72 had been similarly engaged at Cambridge 
before the middle of the fifteenth century.^^ All these were 
doctors of divinity, while many of them exerted immense 
influence as regents and chancellors of the two universities. 
Again, English Franciscans were summoned to teach at 
foreign seats of learning. "Lyons, Paris and Cologne," 
writes Brewer, "were indebted for their first professors to 
the English Franciscans at Oxford. Repeated applications 
were made from Ireland, Denmark, France, and Germany 
for English friars. "^^ 

Under their influence, theology and philosophy as well 
as the liberal arts were, not only greatly promoted, but also 
turned to practical account. Parkinson remarks that many 
English friars wrote commentaries on Sacred Scripture. 
And Brewer finds it remarkable "that the friars, the most 
ardent upholders of scholastic theology, are precisely the 

49. Ibidem, pp. 178, 181, 182, 183, 191. 

50. Felder, p. 316. 

51. Parkinson, pp. 28, 62. 

52. Monumenta Franciscana, Vol. I, Preface, p. LXXXI. 



24 FRANCISCANS AND 

men who constitute the most popular preachers of the age. ' ' 
The friars were the first to treat medicine and physics 
empirically; they gave a new impulse to higher mathe- 
matics; while by their zeal for the classics, they paved the 
way for the Christian Humanism of the subsequent Renais- 
sance period.^^ English friars were also instrumental in 
founding Baliol College at Oxford, Pembroke College at 
Cambridge, and a lecture hall at Paris. It was probably 
through their efforts that the art of printing was introduced 
at Oxford as early as 1463, and that, in 1474, the works of 
Duns Scotus were printed and published for the first time 
in England.^* ''In the thirteenth century," says Digby, 
''the Dominicans and Franciscans surpassed all their prede- 
cessors in zeal for writing and collecting books." At an 
early date, the Franciscans had two libraries at Oxford, one 
for the brethren and another for the secular professors and 
students of the university. Many of the volumes had been 
bequeathed to them by Bishop Grosseteste, while the large 
number of Greek and Hebrew works had been purchased 
from the exiled Jews.^^ 

Among the English Franciscans who were esteemed as 
profound and influential scholars, Ven. John Duns Scotus 
and Fr. Roger Bacon undoubtedly hold the place of honor. 
The former, known as the Subtle Doctor, is the founder of 
the Franciscan school of Scholasticism. But he is chiefly 
revered as the Doctor of Mary. When the question of the 
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin was dividing 
the most eminent theologians of the time, it was he who 
boldly proclaimed this prerogative of the Mother of God — 
a doctrine which some 550 years later was solemnly declared 
a dogma of the Catholic Church. Fr. Roger Bacon is justly 
styled the father of experimental philosophy. As his numer- 
ous writings amply testify, there was literally no field of 
science that he did not cultivate. In the natural sciences, 
he was far in advance of his time. At the unveiling of a 

53. Felder, pp. 412 seq. 

54. Parkinson, pp. 77 seq., 205. 

55. Digby, Mores CathoUci, Vol. IV, p. 139 ; Parkinson, p. 59. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 25 

statue to his memory, five years ago, a speaker declared this 
distinguished friar to be "one of the most eminent as well 
as one of the most mysterious men that science has pro- 
duced. " It is related that for some marvelous invention of 
his, he was accused of witchcraft. The friar readily sub- 
mitted the case to the ecclesiastical authorities in Rome. 
Needless to say, he was found innocent of the charges; 
whereupon the Pope publicly exonerated him, adding that 
his "only fault was being wiser and more knowing than 
others of his time."^^ Fr. Haymo of Faversham, at the 
command of Gregory IX, revised the Roman breviary and 
missal. Fr. Alexander of Hales, the teacher of St. Bona- 
venture and of St. Thomas, was the first to systemize 
Catholic theology. Whatever may be advanced to discredit 
tiie name of Fr. William Occham, every historian will agree 
with Holzapfel in reckoning this friar among the greatest 
scholars of the. Order, on account of the far-reaching in- 
fluence he exerted on higher learning. The first noteworthy 
encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, entitled De Proprietatihus 
Reritm, was compiled by Fr. Bartholomew, surnamed Angli- 
cus. It was the standard work down to the sixteenth cen- 
tury and was translated into several languages.^'^ Fr. John 
Somer was probably the first to visit the north pole and to 
measure the lands there with his astrolabe.^® One of the 
most influential advocates for the restoration of Catholic 
unity in the Church during the. Great Western Schism was 
Fr. Nicholas Fackingham.^^ Of the many Franciscans who, 
besides those already mentioned, deserve special notice, we 
select a few; viz., FF. Henry of Oxford, Adam of York, 
Ralph Rose, John of London, Hugh of Newcastle, John 
Canon, Adam of Lincoln, Thomas Eccleston, John Hilton, 
Richard Middleton, John Lathbery, Robert Colman, Wil- 

56. Parkinson, p. 111. 

57. Holzapfel, pp. 229, 288, 289, 276. Regarding Fr. William Occham, 
see Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, Vol. VI. 

58. See Frcmciscan Annals (Pantasaph, England), Vol. XLIII, pp. 00 
seq. 

59. Parkinson, p. 188. See also Archivum Franoiscanum Historicum, 
Vol. I, pp. 577-600. 



26 FRANCISCANS AND 

liam Goddard, Robert Finningham, John Kynton, and 
Henry Standish. All these were doctors of divinity and 
eminent writers on Catholic theology and philosophy. 

Such then was the activitj^ of the English Franciscans 
prior to the Reformation, as widespread and vigorous as it 
was salutary and providential. ''The English Francis- 
cans," Parkinson justly declares, ''were no lazy drones, 
but active good religious men, and spent their time well, 
to the edification of their neighbor, as well as for their own 
improvement. Some of them indeed were wholly taken up 
in contemplation and prayer, but others in study and in 
teaching, others in preaching and instruction, and assisting 
the people in both spiritual and corporal works of mercy, 
others in writing out the labors of their learned brethren 
and all principally, in the constant exercise of religion and 
a fervorous tendency towards Christian perfection. "^° 
Cherished by high and by low, they had decked the shrine 
of St. Francis with the flowers of sanctity and the laurels 
of learning. Now the time was at hand when they should 
gather in also the palms of martyrdom and join the glorious 
ranks of those ' ' who are come out of great tribulation, and 
have washed their robes, and have made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb. " 

60. Parkinson, Preface, p. V. 



CHAPTER II 

CALM BEFORE THE STORM 

Early reign of Henry VIII — Religious conditions in Eng- 
land — Attitude toward papal supremacy — The king, a 
dutiful child of the Church — The reform movement in 
the Order of St. Francis — Its hearing on the Province 
of England — !^he king well disposed toward the Fran- 
ciscans. 

Seldom were political and religious conditions more 
auspicious anywhere than in England when Henry VIII 
(1509-1547) ascended the throne. During the reign of his 
father, Henry VII, whose victory over Richard III at Bos- 
worth put an end to the bloody War of the Roses, royal 
ascendancy gained a firm hold on the minds and hearts of 
the English. Though taxations had been heavy and fre- 
quent, the people at large submitted when they recalled the 
horrors of the recent war. And now that the first of the 
Tudors had died leaving the State treasury well filled, they 
pinned their hopes for brighter days on his youthful suc- 
cessor. 

Endowed with rare qualities of mind and body, the 
prince of eighteen summers fully vindicated their most 
sanguine hopes. Shortly after his accession, he espoused, 
with papal dispensation, Catherine of Aragon, the maiden 
widow of his brother Arthur. This only raised him in the 
esteem of the people ; the popularity of the fair and pious 
princess was naturally extended to him. What further as- 
sured him of popular favor was the fact that he confirmed 
the general pardon granted by his predecessor, and, not only 
offered compensation to those who had been wronged dur- 
ing the preceding reign, but ordered the arrest and punish- 

27 



28 FRANCISCANS AND 

ment of those who had been the chief abettors of the late 
king's rapacity.^ His military success in France and Scot- 
land likewise angured well for the future. In short, politi- 
cally his reign promised to be an era of peace at home and 
of prestige abroad ; and as far as religious conditions were 
concerned, no one ever fancied that within twenty-five years 
a dreadful upheaval would take place in the realm. 

The assertion often made by non-Catholic historians that 
on the eve of the Reformation religious life in England was 
at a very low ebb, conflicts with the latest researches ; and to 
say that the religious revolution was but the inevitable out- 
come and culmination of Lollardism is utterly unwarranted.^ 
Long before Henry's rupture with Rome, the heresy of 
Wyclif had sunk into the grave with the heretic himself. 
It is true that in the beginning of the sixteenth century there 
were serious evils in the Church of England that needed 
curing. Of these the most baneful was undoubtedly the 
worldly and mercenary spirit that prevailed among the 
nobility and the higher clergy. Generally speaking, how- 
ever, historians to-day agree that the lower classes cherished 
and practiced their faith. Gasquet remarks that ''religion 
on the eve of the Reformation was intimately bound up with 
the whole life of the people, animating it and penetrating 
it at every point." This refutes the oft-repeated charge 
that also the lower clergy, regular as well as secular, were 
wanting in virtue and zeal and that in consequence they 
had forfeited the respect and confidence of the people. It 
was Blessed Thomas More who argued that, if religious con- 
ditions among the laity were good, corruption among the 
clergy could not have been so general. 

Unshaken was also the belief of the English nation in 
the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. Of course, the full 
import of this doctrine was then not so clearly defined as 
it is to-day. Repeatedly, disputes arose between the Church 
and the State, especially regarding ecclesiastical immuni- 

1. Lingard, History of England, Vol, IV, p. 169. 

2. See Gasquet, The Eve of the Reformation, pp. 184 seq. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 29 

ties and exemptions. Although it was again principally 
among the upper classes that loyalty to the Holy See was 
not what it should have been, certain it is that the nation as 
such recognized only one supreme head in the Church, 
namely the Bishop of Rome. The theory of royal supremacy 
did not emanate from the convictions of the people, but 
from the pride and covetousness of the crown.^ 

As to the king himself, history assures us that during the 
first years of his reign he was singularly well disposed to- 
ward the Church and humbly submissive to her doctrine and 
discipline. It is thought that he had been destined for the 
sacred ministry, but that this plan had to be abandoned on 
the premature death of his elder brother Arthur. Be this as 
it may, Henry's thorough training not only in Christian 
humanism but also in theology under the direction of Car- 
dinal Fisher made him a man of firm religious convictions. 
Although he was of a gay and chivalrous disposition, de- 
lighting in the sports and justs and other popular amuse- 
ments of the time, there is nothing on record that points 
to a base and corrupt heart. When on a hunt, he was wont 
daily to hear three holy Masses, and on other days often 
four or five. Every day he assisted at Vespers and Com- 
pline in the Queen's chapel. He seems to have fostered a 
great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, in whose honor, it is 
said, he told his beads every day. In 1505, and again in 
1510, he made a pilgrimage to Our Lady's shrine at Wal- 
singham. Spelman relates that he walked barefoot to this 
place from Baseham, a distance of three miles, that he pre- 
sented the shrine with a precious necklace, and that at his 
own expense he had new windows put in the chapel. It is 
known, too, that in 1522 he accompanied Emperor Charles V 
on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, where the two monarchs, 
having attended high Mass and received Holy Communion, 
knelt in prayer at the tomb of St. Thomas a Becket.* 

3. Ibidem, pp. 70 seq. 

4. Du Boys, Catherine D'Aragon, pp. 102, 106 ; Hope, The First Divorce 
of Henry VIII, p. 24 ; Timbs, Ahheys . ... of England and WaleSt Vol. 
I, p. 543. 



30 FRANCISCANS AND 

During the political troubles between Pope Julius II and 
the King of France, Henry VIII faithfully upheld the rights 
of the Papacy and openly espoused the cause of the Holy 
League. When Martin Luther attacked the doctrine of the 
Church and rebelled against the authority of the Pope, the 
English king was among the first to raise his voice in solemn 
protest. In 1522, he wrote his famous Assertio Septem Sac- 
ramentorum in reply to Luther 's heretical tenets. On being 
warned by Blessed Thomas More that in this work he had 
unduly emphasized the authority of the Pope as a temporal 
prince, Henry uttered the remarkable words: **"We are so 
much bounded unto the see of Rome that we can not do too 
much honor unto it. Whatsoever impediment be to the con- 
trary, we will set forth that authority to the uttermost, for 
we received from that see our crown imperial. ' '^ The book 
was presented to the Pope by the English ambassador in 
Rome, Dr. John Clarke. In grateful acknowledgement, 
Leo X issued a Bull in which he bestowed on Henry the 
honorable title of Defender of the Faith — a title which, 
strange to say, the English crown carries to the present day. 
On not less than three different occasions, the Vicar of 
Christ honored Henry with the golden rose as a mark of 
special esteem and gratitude for services rendered to the 
Church.^ So deep-rooted was his allegiance to the Holy See 
that even when about to usurp its spiritual supremacy he 
compelled Cranmer to take the usual oath of obedience to 
the See of Rohie.'^ In fine, whatever his private life may 
have been, certain it is that during the first years of his 
reign the Church and its supreme head had a firm hold on 
the affections of the king as well as of the English nation at 
large. 

To enable the reader to understand and appreciate the 

5. Thus Blessed Thomas More publicly testified at his trial on being 
accused of having induced Henry to maintain in his book the authority ot 
the Pope so as thereby "to put a sword in the Pope's hand to fight against" 
the king. See Roper, Life of Sir Thomas More, Knt., p. 67. 

6. Annually, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the Holy Father solemnly 
blesses a golden rose, which he later presents to some person or place of 
distinction. See The Catholic Enct/clopedin, Vol. VI. p. 630. 

7. Dodd, Church History of England, Vol. I, p. 71. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 31 

heroic zeal of the English Franciscans for truth and mor- 
ality during the subsequent religious upheaval, it will be 
necessary to insert a brief account of the Observant reform 
in the Order of St. Francis and of its bearing on the history 
of the English province. Soon after the death of St. 
Francis, diversities of opinion and practice arose in the 
Order regarding the observance of the vow of poverty. 
While a number of brethren, supported by influential men 
in and out of the Order, sought to mitigate the severity of 
the fourth chapter of the Franciscan Rule, others advocated 
and observed renunciation of corporate as well as private 
ownership of temporalities. During the fourteenth cen- 
tury, these differences became more pronounced. Those 
who following Blessed Paul de Trinci labored for the reform 
of the Order were called Observants ; while the others who 
with papal dispensations held property in common, went by 
tne name of Conventuals.^ In the next century, the reform 
movement was greatly furthered by four saintly friars 
known as the pillars of Observantism ; viz., St. Bernardine 
of Siena, St. John Capistran, St. James della Marca, and Bl. 
Albert of Sartiano. Through their untiring efforts, the 
reform spread rapidly over entire Europe, so that by the 
eve of the Reformation the Franciscans had returned in 
great numbers to the original observance of the Rule. In 
the various provinces of the Order, there were about 1,500 
Observant houses, in which, to make a rough estimate, some 
80,000 friars resided. A definite separation was finally 
made by Pope Leo X, in 1517, so that henceforth there ex- 
isted two distinct branches of the Order, the Observants 
and the Conventuals.^ 

According to Parkinson, it is probable that this Observ- 
ant movement reached the English province early in the 
fifteenth century, and it it was gradually adopted by most 

8. Throughout the present narrative, we designate the former by the 
term Franciscans, the latter by the term Conventuals. 

9. See Holzapfel, Oeschichte des Franziskanerordens. 



32 FRANCISCANS AND 

of the friars.^^ We know, for instance, that in 1454, St. 
John Capistran, then vicar general of the Franciscans, 
addressed a letter to Henry VI of England, thanking him 
among other things for his promise to have friaries erected 
for the brethren of the reform. At the chapters held in 
Palencia (1470) and at Bruges (1484) England was reck- 
oned a province of the reform. The chapter held at Mechlin 
(1499) unanimously resolved "that the province of England 
having now a competent number of convents should here- 
after have two votes in all general chapters, after the manner 
of other reformed provinces." Finally, it is known that 
already in 1502, the English Conventuals agreed to exchange 
their religious garb for the poorer and coarser habit of their 
reformed brethren. 

Although the exact number of Franciscan friaries in 
England can not be ascertained, we know that in 1481 Pope 
Sixtus IV gave certain English nobles a grant to erect such 
friaries. Later, Henry VII built three convents for the 
Franciscans at Greenwich, Newark, and Richmond in 
Surrey, and caused the Conventuals to cede to them their 
houses at Canterbury, Newcastle, and Southampton. Park- 
inson thinks that after 1517, almost all the sons of St. Fran- 
cis in England had accepted the reform, since after that 
year he finds no mention of Conventual chapters or pro- 
vincials.^^ Apparently, the reform movement does not seem 
to have essentially marred the unity of the province. AU 
the friars in England *'were," as Parkinson puts it, **in 
effect true observers of their Founder 's Rule, and made up 
one community. Furthermore, in 1498, the Franciscans 
held their chapter at the Grey Friars^^ in London, which was 
not reckoned one of their houses.^^ And, as will be seen 
later, at the time of the general suppression of the province, 

10. Parkinson, The Antiquities of the English Franciscans, pp. 203, 
206, 207, 211, 213 ; Annales Minorum, Vol. V, p. 106 ; Vol. VI, pp. 112, 709 ; 
Vol. VII, pp. 176, 407. 

11. Parkinson, pp. 207, 216, 220. 

12. In England, the sons of St. Francis went by this name on account 
of the color of their habit. 

13. Thaddeus, The Franciscans in England, p. 14. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 33 

about 1539, by far the greater number of its friaries were 
found to be strictly in keeping with the original severity of 
the Rule, depending for their daily subsistence on the 
charity of the people. ' ' The truth of the thing is, ' ' Parkin- 
son assures us, "that few of the Franciscan convents in 
England enjoyed any rents, and therefore it was easy enough 
for most of them to join in the reformation (of the Order) ; 
as in effect they did, though they continued in their own 
convents, by reason of the different degrees of their reforma- 
tion and observance of the Rule of St. Francis." This 
much then is certain, that on the eve of the religious troubles, 
the greater number of the English friars were true followers 
of St. Francis, and together with the Carthusians and Brig- 
ittines formed the most zealous and most popular body of 
religious in England. 

It was but natural for Henry VIII, so sincerely devoted 
to the interest and welfare of the Church, to imitate his 
immediate predecessors in their friendly attitude toward 
the Franciscans. ''At the beginning of his reign," writes 
Stone, *'he had shown them special favor, had written more 
than once to the Pope on their behalf, declaring that he had 
the most deep and devoted affection towards them, and that 
he found it quite impossible to describe their merits as they 
deserved. They presented, he said, an ideal of Christian 
poverty, sincerity, and charity; their lives were devoted to 
fasting, watching, prayer ; and they were occupied in hard 
toil, by night and day, to win sinners back to God. * '^* Their 
friary and church at Greenwich adjoined the royal palace, 
where Henry was born, and where he usually resided after 
his accession to the throne. Here with his saintly consort, 
Queen Catherine of Aragon, who was a Tertiary of St. 
Francis, he attended divine services. For another Tertiary, 
Bl. Thomas More, whose life was so intimately bound up 
with court affairs, he entertained the highest regard. For 
almost ten years, his confessor was Fr. Stephen Baron, who 

14. Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 1, on the authority of Ellis'e Orig- 
iSAl Letters. 



34 FRANCISCANS AND 

was provincial in 1520, and who wrote a book for the benefit 
of the king, entitled On the Government of Princes}^ When 
the Franciscans in Palestine, hard pressed by the Turkish 
hordes under Selim, were at last compelled to flee to Cyprus, 
Henry VIII personally wrote to them,^® assuring them that 
since his tenderest years he had always revered the sons of 
St. Francis, and that henceforth he would send them an 
annual alms of 1,000 scudi for the maintenance of the Holy 
Places. Again it was a Franciscan, Fr. John Kynton, doctor 
of divinity at Oxford, whom the king, in 1521, engaged to 
write a defence of Catholic doctrine against Luther.^^ 

15. Mason, Certamen SerapMcum, p. 292; Parkinson, p. 222. 

16. For a copy of this letter, dated November 23, 1516, see Annalea 
Minorum, Vol. Ill, p. 53. 

17. Parkinson, p. 222 ; Dodd, Vol. I, p. 237. 



CHAPTER III 

FIRST RUMBLINGS OP THE STORM 

Henry seeks divorce from Catherine of Aragon — He repudi- 
ates her and marries Anne Boleyn — The Franciscans and 
the king's '^secret affair" — Fr. William Peyto publicly 
rebukes the king and his court — Fr. John Elstow and 
Dr. Cururin — The two friars before the king — Banished. 

It was not political interest but mutual affection and 
esteem that had joined Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon 
in the bonds of wedlock. As years wore on, however, 
Henry 's attitude toward his saintly queen underwent a sad 
change. Of the various causes that conspired to divert him 
from the path of duty, the principal one was the loose life at 
court. Some historians assert that it is doubtful whether 
he was ever a faithful husband. How far Henry in this 
respect shared the disgrace of other crowned heads of his 
time, it would be hard to determine. At all events, his fre- 
quent addresses to persons of indifferent morals were suffi- 
cient cause for alarm. The queen, no doubt, had her sus- 
picions, but for obvious reasons remained silent; while 
Cardinal Wolsey, who could and should have warned the 
heedless king, refrained from doing so on personal as well as 
on political grounds.^ Hence, in 1527, when Henry's pas- 
sion for Anne Boleyn, a lady in the Queen 's household, had 
got the better of him, he openly urged the question of a 
divorce from Catherine, feigning scruples of conscience 
regarding the validity of the dispensation he had obtained 
from Rome to marry her. The case was eventually brought 
before the Roman court, and the Pope appointed a special 

1. Harpsfield and two other contemporary chroniclers even assert that 
Wolsey and Longland, then confessor to Henry VIII, were the first to raise 
serious doubts In the king's mind regarding the validity of his marriage 
with Catherine of Aragon. See Bu Boys, Catherine D'Aragon, pp. 149 seq. 

35 



36 FRANCISCANS AND 

commission to examine it. All during the lengthy and com- 
plicated proceedings of this commission, the king as well as 
his cringing partisans among the nobility and higher clergy 
knew fully well that Catherine was his lawful consort, and 
that his alleged fear of living in illegal wedlock with her 
was merely a cloak to hide the foulness of his heart. 

This became clear when, seeing that the papal commission 
would ultimately declare against the projected divorce, he 
anticipated its decision, repudiated Queen Catherine, and 
secretly married Anne Boleyn. The sacrilegious ceremony 
took place on January 25, 1533, in the private chapel of the 
royal palace at Whitehall.^ It was performed by Rowland 
Lee, but only after the lying king had assured the chaplain 
' ' that he had got a license from the Pope to marry another 
wife, but to avoid disturbance he wished the ceremony to 
take place very secretly."^ On Saturday, May 10, Cran- 
mer, who had just been consecrated Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, cited Queen Catherine before his ecclesiastical court at 
Dunstable. When she refused to appear, he declared her 
' ' contumacious. ' ' Whereupon, to the shame and dismay of 
the English nation, the pliant archbishop publicly declared 
Henry's marriage with her null and void, and announced 
and confirmed his secret marriage with Anne Boleyn. The 
ambitious coquette was then pompously escorted from Green- 
wich to the Tower for coronation. The attending cere- 
monies bore the character of a funeral rather than of a 
public festivity. In a letter dated May 29, 1533, the im- 
perial ambassador Chapuys writes to Charles V, the nephew 
of Queen Catherine, that the ''triumph consisted entirely in 
the multitude of those who took part in it, but all the people 
showed themselves so sorry as though it had been a funeral. 
I am told," he continues, ''their indignation grows daily, 
and that they live in hope your majesty will interfere. On 

2. That this date is correct is evident from the testimony of Chapuys 
and of Cranmer. For obvious reasons, an earlier date, November 14, 1532, 
the day when Henry and Anne sailed from Calais, has been assigned for 
this sacrilegious ceremony. See Lingard, History of England, Vol. V, p. 2 ; 
Hope, The First Divorce of Henry VIII, p. 296. 

8. Hope, The First Divorce . . . . p. 294. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 37 

Saturday, the lady will pass all through London and go 
to the king's lodging, and on Sunday to Westminster, where 
the ceremony of coronation will take place. ' '* 

Henry was not slow to discern that his action against 
Queen Catherine ^lad roused a spirit of discontent among the 
lower classes, and that the sons of St. Francis had been fore- 
most and loudest in creating it. Indeed, from the day hia 
''secret affair" became a topic of popular comment, the 
Franciscans endeavored to prevent what they clearly fore- 
saw would lead to serious consequences. Traveling about 
the country in the discharge of their sacred duties, they 
freely and fearlessly acquainted the people with the truo 
state of the question and thus gradually succeeded in mold- 
ing public opinion against the king's ungodly design.*^ 
** Unspoilt by prosperity," writes Stone, ''their conscience 
unclouded by self-interest, Henry found them far more 
difficult to deal with than either the Universities or the 
monks. They were intimidated by no threats, no promise of 
preferment led them astray. The most popular preachers 
were to be found in their ranks, and the king knew that while 
they were allowed to preach, the people would be told the 
truth, however much he tried to deceive them. ' '® Accord- 
ingly, the very men who only a few years before had stood 
so high in his favor and esteem, were now the object of his 
scorn and hatred. This he showed openly for the first time 
in 1532, when he wrote to their minister general, Fr. Paul 
Pissotus, asking him to depose the provincial Blessed John 
Forest,^ probably because he suspected him of having influ- 
enced the queen, his penitent, in her recent appeal to Rome. 
Though this made it clear to the friars that their position 
was growing critical, it did not intimidate, much less silence 
them. 

Naturally, their friary at Greenwich, under the very eyes 
of the king and his court, became the storm center in the 

4. stone : Faithful Unto Death, p. 14, from the Vienna Archives. 

5. Mason, Certamen Seraphicum, p. 6. 

6. stone. Faithful Unto Death, p. 5. 

7. Parkinson, The Antiquities of the English Franciscans, p. 227. 



38 FRANCISCANS AND 

coming conflict. Its inmates enjoyed the love and respect 
of the people, and the king realized that it was all-important 
to make sure of their sentiments regarding his relations with 
Anne Boleyn. To this end, Thomas Cromwell prevailed on 
one of the lay brothers of the community, Richard Lyst, by 
name, to serve him as spy.® Through secret correspondence 
with him, the wily minister soon learned that the friars were 
staunch adherents of the queen, and that they were resolved 
to stand by truth and justice no matter what the conse- 
quences would be. 

As one of the chief agitators against the divorce the in- 
forming lay brother designated the guardian, Fr. William 
Peyto, a man of deep learning and sterling piety. He was 
born about the year 1480, at Chesterton in Warwickshire. 
After completing his education at Oxford, he renounced the 
world and joined the Franciscan Order. In view of his 
learning, the university conferred on him the academic 
degrees and elected him a fellow of Queen's College. Fr. 
Peyto had fully imbibed the spirit of St. Francis, and he 
became a zealous promoter of the reform movement in the 
Order. He had at one time been confessor to the queen and 
to Princess Marj% her only surviving child, and had since 
been elected guardian of the Greenwich friary.^ In this 
way, he frequently came in touch with the court, saw with 
bitter regret how wicked flatterers and seducers had brought 
the king to the verge of perdition. 

On Sunday, May 11, 1533, Fr. Peyto had to preach in 
the Franciscan church at Greenwich.^^ The king, whose 

8. He subsequently left the Order and became a secular priest. As 
Judas wages for his treachery, the renegade received the vicarage of St. 
Dunstan's West. See Strickland, Lives of the Queem of England, Vol. II, 
p. 653, footnote. We shall hear more of Fr. Lyst, when we treat the life 
of Blessed John Forest. 

9. Leon, Aureole Seraphiqtie (Engl, trans!.), Vol. IV, p. 346; Stone, 
Mary the First, Queen of England, p. 456. 

10. The following account of FF. Peyto and Elstow is taken from 
Mason, Certamen Seraphicum, pp. 11-14, who drew from the Annals of 
John stow. Gairdner's 'account based on the State Papers (see Hope, The 
First Divorce .... pp. 274-279) differs considerably from Stow's, espe- 
cially as regards the day and the year assigned for the event. According 
to Stow, Fr. Elstow publicly opposed Dr. Curwin on Sunday, May 8, 1533 
(a later edition of his Annals has May 28, 1533), while Galrdner, pre- 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 39 

secret marriage with Anne Boleyn had by this time been 
noised abroad, was present, surrounded by his courtiers. 
This then was the guardian's chance to sound a last word 
of rebuke and warning. Presentiments of some impending 
calamity were written on every countenance when the fear- 
less friar ascended the pulpit. After relating from the Old 
Testament how King Achab had been misguided by the four 
hundred false prophets, and how he had insulted and im- 
prisoned the true prophet Micheas and soon after died a 
most terrible death, the bold preacher turned to Henry and 
exclaimed: "Even where the dogs licked the blood of 

sumably on the authority of the State Papers, says it was on Easter Sun- 
day, 1532, Both statements present difficulties. Neither May 8 nor May 
28 were Sundays in 1533 ; however, May 18 was a Sunday in that year. 
Possibly, then, May 8 is a typographical error and should read May 18 ; 
perhaps, too, the copyist for the later edition of the Annals misread or 
misunderstood the Latin duodetricesima (28) for duodevicesima (18). 
Accordingly Fr. Elstow's defence occurred on May 18, and Fr. Peyto 
preached on the preceding Sunday, May 11, the day after Queen Catherine 
was cited to Cranmer's court at Dunstable. 

Cobbett, in his History of the Protestant Reformation (p. 51, foot- 
note), regards this solution as probable, while the Annales Minorum (Vol. 
XIX, p. 112) declare that Stow must be read with caution {caute legen>- 
dum), when he assigns 1533 as the year in which Fr. Peyto was banished. 
Therefore the editors of Volume XIX of the Annates, which was published 
in 1914, place the whole affair in the year 1582, although their reasons for 
doing so do not seem entirely convincing. 

As to the State Papers, we find that in one case at least they make 
contradictory statements. On the one hand, they contain a letter written 
on February 4, 1533, by Fr. Richard Lyst to Thomas Cromwell, in which 
the lay brother mentions Fr. Peyto as one of the chief agitators against 
the King's divorce (see Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, 
p. 158). On the other hand, the same State Papers bring a letter written 
by Chapuys to Emperor Charles V, stating that Fr. Peyto's sermon was 
held OD Easter Sunday, 1532 (see Camm, Lives of the English Martyrs, 
Vol. I, p. 278). Now one of these letters must be wrongly dated. We 
take it to be the second, for Lyst would hardly have incriminated Fr. Peyto 
after the latter's banishment ; and he would have been banished by this 
time had his sermon taken place ten months before. 

Other reasons which to us seem to speak for the correctness of Stew's 
account are the following: 1. That a provincial chapter was held at Can- 
terbury in May, 1533, is very probable ; first, because a general chapter 
had been held at Toulouse the preceding January, at which, as the record 
quoted by the Annates Minorum shows, Fr. Peyto was present ; and second, 
because, as we know, during Lent, 1533, the commissary arrived to replace 
Blessed John Forest in the provincialship, which would naturally have 
called for a meeting of the superiors in a chapter. — 2. Again, Stow says 
that Fr. Peyto was "the very first (primus ommum) publicly to rebuke 
the king for the marriage contracted with Anne Boleyn," which it seems 
would have been premature and even highly imprudent to do fourteen 
months before, i.e. in the spring of 1532, when the king's "secret affair" 
was not yet a topic of public comment. — Finally, in his sermon Fr. Peyto 
speaks of the marriage as a settled fact, as indeed it was, although the 
public solemnities had not yet taken place. 



40 FRANCISCANS AND 

Naboth, there shall they lick also thy blood, king. I am 
that Micheas," he continued, "whom thou wilt hate, because 
I must speak the truth and tell thee that this marriage is 
unlawful. And although I foresee that I shUl have to eat 
the bread of affliction and drink the water of sorrow, yet, 
because the Holy Ghost has inspired and instructed me, I 
needs must speak.'' Then he inveighed most vehemently 
against the king's recent marriage with Anne Boleyn, and 
conjuring him to leave the path of crime and scj^ndal and to 
hearken to the voice of conscience, he added: "I confess 
there are many, yea, too many preachers who for the sake 
of temporal preferment counsel thee otherwise and unrea- 
sonably nourish thy foolish and frail affections. And to 
what purpose? Forsooth, to procure fat benefices, to ac- 
quire riches, to become abbots, to obtain episcopal jurisdic- 
tion and other ecclesiastical dignities ; and all the while, alas ! 
by these and similar means they betray and ruin thy soul, 
thy honor, thy prosperity. These, I dare say, are the four 
hundred prophets whom the spirit of error and deceit has 
breathed upon, and who attempt in like manner to mislead 
and deceive thee. But be on thy guard, king, that having 
been deceived thou dost not pay the penalty of Achab whose 
blood the dogs licked up." Apparently, the king took this 
first public rebuke with good grace. His fawning courtiers, 
however, were stung to the quick, and henceforth they were 
the avowed enemies of the dauntless friars. 

In the course of the following week, Fr. Peyto left for 
Canterbury to attend the provincial chapter, and Henry 
resolved to make the most of his temporary absence. To 
undo the effects of his sermon on the minds of the people, he 
engaged Dr. Curwin, a canon of Hereford, to preach a ser- 
mon on the following Sunday, May 18, in defence of his 
marriage. Dr. Curwin, whose pride and ambition had long 
since seared his conscience, hailed the opportunity of cater- 
ing to his royal master and of thus securing his own emolu- 
ment. Accordingly, on the following Sunday, Henry and 
his court again assembled in the church at Greenwich. Their 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 41 

eyes beamed with joy and triumph, when Dr. Curwin un- 
scrupulously denounced Queen Catherine and in high-flown 
terms extolled the king for marrying Anne Boleyn and 
thereby ensuring the welfare of the kingdom. Feeling quite 
safe in the absence of Fr. Peyto, he began to heap insults on 
his name, calling him a dog, a slanderer, a low-minded and 
beggarly friar, a plotter, a rebel, a traitor, and finally shout- 
ing in boastful defiance, ' ' I speak to thee, Peyto, who makest 
thyself Micheas, in order to upbraid kings ; but, now thou art 
not to be found, being fled for fear and shame, since thou 
art not able to answer my arguments. ^ ' 

But the foolhardy speaker and his abettors had failed to 
reckon with another hero in the Franciscan garb. Great 
was their dismay and fury when, in the midst of the boaster's 
shameless tirade, Fr. John Elstow leaped to his feet and 
exclaimed from the gallery of the church : ' ' Good sir, thou 
knowest that Fr. Peyto, as he was commanded, has gone to 
the provincial chapter assembled at Canterbury, and that he 
has not fled for fear of thee. Thou knowest this very well. 
To-morrow he will be here again. Meanwhile, I am here as 
another Micheas to prove from Holy Scripture, at the risk 
of my life, all those things as true which he hath taught. 
Here I stand in readiness, and thus, before God and all 
impartial judges, I challenge thee to this combat. Thee, 
thee, Curwin, I take to account, who art one of those four 
hundred prophets, in whom the spirit of falsehood and error 
is wholly entered ; to thee my words are directed, who seekest 
to establish by adultery the royal succession ; to thee, who art 
betraying the king into endless perdition; at thee, I say, 
these words of mine are aimed, at thee, who hast spoken 
more to satisfy thy own craving for honor and promotion, 
tlian to unburden thy clogged conscience or to guard the 
welfare of the king." Harpsfield, who says he heard the 
whole account from Elstow himself, writes: ''Many other 
things he would have spoken, and much ado there was to 
stay him. At the hearing of this the king was cast into a 
great choler and in a great heat commanded that these friars 



42 FRANCISCANS AND 

should be conveyed thither where he should never hear more 
of them."" 

On the following day, Fr. Peyto returned from Canter- 
bury. His heart swelled with paternal pride and joy when 
the brethren told him how bravely one of their number had 
crossed swords with Dr. Curwin and had defended their 
guardian 's good name and the rights of their lawful queen. 
With words of sincere gratitude and admiration, he con- 
gratulated Fr. Elstow, and at the same time exhorted the 
community faithfully to follow the voice of conscience in 
the hour of trial that he felt was now fast approaching. His 
presentiments proved only too true. That very day a mes- 
senger summoned FF. Peyto and Elstow before the kins: and 
his council. 

We may picture to ourselves the menacing looks of 
hatred and vengeance that greeted the two friars on their 
entering the council chamber. Although their exterior be- 
spoke meekness and humility, the fearless determination 
written on their countenances made it clear that they were 
ready to sacrifice and suffer all for conscience's sake. On 
being commanded to give an explanation of their late con- 
duct, Fr. Peyto stepped forward and again rebuked the king 
for his illicit relations with Anne Bole;yTi, at the same time 
predicting that, if he persisted in his iniquity, the hand of a 
just and avenging God would fall heavily upon him. In the 
course of the hearing, Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, ex- 
claimed that the two friars were traitors and deserved to be 
put in sacks and thrown alive into the Thames. But they 
only smiled, and Fr. Elstow turning to the earl, said quietly : 
"With such things threaten those who have riches and im- 
mense possessions, who clothe themselves in gorgeous purple, 
and who pass their days in pleasures and amusements. Fgr 
we account them as nothing; rather do we rejoice that we 
are driven hence for having done our duty ; and, ' ' he added 
pleasantly, ''we give a thousand thanks to God, since we 

11. Quoted by Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. I, p. 163, 
footnote. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 43 

know the way which leads to heaven to be open by water as 
well as by land ; and therefore it is all the same to us whether 
we go by this way or by that. ' ' 

Henry saw that it was useless to bandy words with these 
men of God. He was at a loss how to proceed against them. 
To send them to the block he dared not for fear of the people, 
who, he well knew, sympathized with his repudiated queen 
and revered the sons of St. Francis for their heroic zeal in 
her behalf. It was probably owing to this circumstance 
that FF. Peyto and Elstow escaped with their lives. For 
the present, they were imprisoned and after some time ban- 
ished from the country. Both survived persecution under 
Henry VIII and later returned to their friary at Greenwich. 

Thus FF. Peyto and Elstow were the first publicly to 
defy the English king, whose unbridled passions were bring- 
ing ruin and desolation on the Church and State in England. 
' ' It is impossible, ' ' the Protestant historian Cobbett declares, 
*'to speak with sufficient admiration of these two men. Ten 
thousand victories by land or sea would not bespeak such 
heroism in the winners of these victories as was shown by 
these friars. If the bishops, or only one-fourth of them, had 
shown equal courage^ the tyrant would have stopped in that 
mad career which was now on the eve of producing so many 
horrors. The stand made by these friars was the only in- 
stance of bold and open resistance, until he had actually got 
into his murders and robberies. ' '^^ 

12. Cobbett, History of the Protestant Reformation, p. 52. 



CHAPTER IV 

OUTBREAK OP THE STORM 

Henry* s divorce and the question of papal supremacy — The 
crisis — The king usurps spijntual supremacy over the 
Church in England — Meets with opposition from the 
Franciscans — Contemplates rigorous measures against 
them — A favorahle opportunity — Elizabeth Barton, the 
Holy Maid of Kent — Her revelations and the king's 
divorce — Two of her adherents: FF. Richard Rishy and 
Hugh Rich — The ^^ public penance" — The two friars 
defend the Pope's spiritual supremacy — Accused of high 
treason — The first martyrs for the faith. 

The question of the king's divorce was intimately con- 
nected with the question of papal supremacy in spiritual 
matters. Henry VIII had married Catherine of Aragon 
after Pope Julius had granted the required dispensation; 
and now, when the king wished to annul this marriage, he 
again appealed to the supreme head of the Church as the 
one and only competent authority to loose the bond. What 
he sought, however, was not an unbiased decision for the 
quieting of his alleged scruples, but an annulment of the 
marriage for the gratification of his unholy passions. ' ' Let 
the Pope pronounce sentence in my favor," he declared, 
''and I will admit his authority, else it shall not be ad- 
mitted."^ Already in 1532, Pope Clement VII wrote to 
Henry threatening him with excommunication if within a 
month after receiving the letter he should still refuse to 
dismiss Anne Boleyn and take back his lawful queen, until 
the papal court had passed judgment.^ But the king wan- 

1. stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 27. 

2. For a copy of this letter see Dodd, Church History of England, 
Vol. I, pp. 288 seq. 

44 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 45 

tonly disregarded the Pope 's admonition, so that finally his 
Holiness, on July 11, 1533, definitely passed sentence, declar- 
ing that the marriage with Anne Boleyn was null and void, 
and that the king had incurred the greater excommunication, 
which would not go into effect, however, till the end of Sep- 
tember, so as to give to the king ample time for reflection.^ 

This action of the Holy See brought matters to a crisis. 
During the remainder of the year 1533, negotiations between 
the Roman court and Henry's agents continued. The king 
dreaded the impending excommunication and urged his 
agents to do all in their power to prevent its promulgation. 
Great, too, was his disappointment, when it was learned that 
the child, which Anne Boleyn bore him on September 8, was 
a girl. From then on his affection for the ambitious 
coquette cooled perceptibly. From Chapuy's correspond- 
ence it appears that at this time the unhappy king suggested 
or even concluded an agreement with Charles V to reinstate 
Catherine in her rights. But political considerations stood 
in the way, while self-seeking courtiers prompted him to 
defy the Pope 's threat and to take the divorce matter into his 
own hands. When, therefore, early in December, the papal 
Bull of excommunication was delivered to him by Thomas 
Cromwell, he grew desperate, and the following spring had 
parliament pass a bill, vesting him with powers that hitherto 
had been exercised solely by the Pope as spiritual head of 
the Church, and demanding that all priests and religious in 
the realm defend this new royal prerogative publicly in their 
sermons.* 

As Henry and his party had expected, the Franciscans 
soon proved as fearless and outspoken in opposing his 
usurped title and authority as they had been in upholding 
the rights of his outraged queen. While jurists and divines 
debated on the nature and scope of papal supremacy, the 
friars, directed by their holy Rule from the start, espoused 
the cause of the Pope. The boldness of FF. Peyto and Els- 

3. For the text of this papal definition see Pocock, Records of the 
Reformation, Vol. II, p. 677. 

4. Hope, First Divorce of Henry VIII, pp. 332, 343. 



46 FRANCISCANS AND 

tow and the effect of their action on the people had not been 
forgotten. Hence, they and their confreres were mentioned 
in particular when orders were issued to the effect that no 
one was to occupy a pulpit in England unless he would 
undertake to defend the king's supremacy.^ Could he but 
have won them over to his side, to gain the people for his 
cause would then be an easy matter. This thought it prob- 
ably was that induced him to have the child of Anne Boleyn 
baptized in the Franciscan church at Greenwich with utmost 
splendor and solemnity. But the friars were insensible to 
royal blandishments when higher duties were at stake ; and 
the king had to hear to his dismay that all over England they 
were publicly denouncing his rupture wdth Rome. Now his 
rage knew no bounds, and goaded on by those who had rea- 
son to hate the friars, he determined to strike terror into 
them and into the nation at large. 

A favorable opportunity was not long in presenting 
itself. Near Canterbury, where the Franciscans had a 
friary, lived Elizabeth Barton, who seemed to be favored by 
Heaven with visions and ecstacies.^ Ever since 1525, her 
revelations were causing a stir among the people ; wherefore 
William Warham, the zealous and prudent Archbishop of 
Canterbury, appointed a commission of learned priests to 
investigate the matter. Of their number were two Francis- 
cans, presumably of Canterbury."^ The report of the com- 
mission was favorable to the Holy Maid of Kent, as Elizabeth 
was called, so that when she applied for admission into the 
Benedictine nunnery of St. Sepulcher, near by, the arch- 
bishop readily gave his consent. In the convent, her strange 
visions and ecstacies continued. What especially caused 
comment among all classes of society were her bold utterances 
on the king's relations with Anne Boleyn. 

At first, Henry gave the affair little attention. But 

5. Ibidem, p. 344. 

6. The following account regarding Elizabeth Barton is based chiefly 
on Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, Vol. I, chap. iv. See 
also Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, letters VI-XIII. 

7. Gasquet (p. 112) has "Father Lewis and his fellow (two observ- 
ants)", on the authority of Lambard. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 47 

about midsummer, 1533, shortly after his secret marriage 
with Anne was proclaimed to the kingdom, the Holy Maid 
declared it had been revealed to her to go and tell him ' ' that 
if he went forward with the purpose that he intended, he 
would not be king of England seven months later ; " and 
added that ''this punishment would be brought about, not 
by any temporal or worldly power, but by God alone. ' '^ On 
hearing this, Henry became much alarmed and had the 
nun and those who were supposed to have advised and 
favored her thrown into the Tower. Among these were FF. 
Richard Risby and Hugh Rich, guardians of Canterbury and 
Richmond. 

In order to delude the people and to give his procedings 
the semblance of justice, it was deemed necessary to blacken 
the character of the Maid of Kent. Of this foul plan Crom- 
well and Cranmer were eager abettors. About the month 
of October, 1533, they subjected the nun and her adherents 
to a strict examination in the star chamber, and then spread 
the false report that the nun had sign^ed a statement, in 
which she confessed her visions and ecstasies to have been a 
fraud to arouse popular sentiment against the king. On 
November 23, she and her supposed accomplices were com- 
pelled to undergo a most degrading ceremony. A high scaf- 
fold was erected at St. Paul's Cross in London, on which 
they were exposed as rebels and impostors to the gaze of the 
populace. Dr. Capon, Abbot of Hyde, occupied a pulpit 
opposite the scaffold. With a zeal worthy of a better cause, 
he publicly defended his royal master and branded his vic- 
tims as lying hypocrites and dangerous plotters against the 
king and the country. The principal target of his strictures 
were the two Franciscans, whom he blamed as ringleaders of 
the whole affair, inasmuch as by word and deed they had 
influenced others in behalf of the nun. Thereupon, he read 
aloud the document which the king's ministers had drawn 
upland proffered as the nun 's confession.^ After this public 

8. Hope, Franciscan Martyrs in England, p. 40. 

9. According to Grey Friars fjhronicle in Monument a Franciscana, 
Vol.'II, p. 196, a similar "penance" was performed by tliem at Canterbury. 



48 FRANCISCANS AND 

humiliation, the ''penitents" were conducted past a large 
concourse of people to the Tower. Henry was elated over 
the effect of this ceremony on the popular mind. To all 
appearances, the people's faith in the Holy Maid had been 
shaken; they were now more favorably disposed toward 
him. 

Meanwhile, the question of his spiritual supremacy had 
become acute. The king was bent on silencing those who 
dared to oppose his usurped authority ; and since the Francis- 
cans had again been foremost in this respect, he decided to 
make an example of the two friars who were already in 
prison. Accordingly, FF. Risby and Rich were called on 
to hold a disputation with the king's men on papal 
supremacy. Everything short of brutal force was employed 
to elicit from the friars a denial of the Catholic doctrine. 
But, neither promises nor threats could for a moment shake 
their constancy. Finally, they were taken back to prison 
and tortured most cruelly. Here again they steadfastly 
professed their fai^h, declaring themselves ready to suffer a 
thousand times more, even death itself, rather than renounce 
him whom, as children of Mother Church and as followers 
of St. Francis, they held to be the only legitimate Vicar of 
Christ on earth. 

Henry was incensed when he heard of their unflinching 
and intrepid constancy. The sight of Tyburn, thought he, 
would make their detested confreres quail, and the blood of 
the Holy Maid of Kent and of her adherents would quench 
all enthusiasm for the Pope. But, in order to condemn 
them to death, it was necessary to convict them of some capi- 
tal offence. Therefore, on March 12, 1534, parliament was 
made to pass a bill of attainder, establishing it as high trea- 
son to criticize the king 's marriage with Anne Boleyn or in 
any way to uphold the supremacy of the Pope. Now Henry 
could act with impunity. Without any form of trial, the 
holy nun and her party were pronounced guilty of high 
treason and condemned to death. 

On April 20, 1534, they were fastened on hurdles and 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 49 

dragged to Tyburn amid the gibes of a deluded populace.^^ 
Faint with suffering and bespattered with mud, the poor 
victims at last came in sight of the place of execution. On 
a scaffold stood the gallows with a caldron of boiling water ; 
near by, on a bench, lay an axe and a huge knife. One by 
one the martyrs were unbound and led below the scaffold. 
Elizabeth Barton was the first to suffer. She was hanged 
and beheaded. Fr. Risby was then ordered to mount the 
scaffold. His gaze turned to heaven, he was praying for 
perseverance in the hour of trial and torture, when sud- 
denly a courier came dashing through the crowd with a 
message from the king. Great was the surprise of all when 
it was learned that his Majesty offered life and liberty to the 
friars if they would renounce the Pope and acknowledge the 
king as supreme head of the Church in England. After 
reading the message aloud, the presiding officer turned to Fr. 
Risby and began to extol the king's mercy and long-suffer- 
ing. A look of celestial peace played on the countenance of 
the condemned friar. This was in very deed what he had 
been hoping and praying for. Now he could publicly pro- 
fess his faith, for which he was about to undergo torture and 
death. He listened in silence while the officer spoke. Then 
raising his eyes heavenward, he exclaimed with a loud and 
resolute voice, * ' Not only will I not rebel against the author- 
ity of the Pope, but I am ready to suffer the most cruel death 
for Holy Mother Church. ^^ Hardly had he uttered this 
heroic profession of faith, when the executioner rushed like 
a madman on the holy friar, rudely flung the rope about his 
neck and thrust him from the ladder. Instantly he leaped 

10. The details regarding the martyrdom of the two Franciscans we 
have drawn chiefly from Bourchier, Hist. Eccl. de Martyrio FF. Ord. Divi 
Franoisd (pp. 6 seq.), whom Gasquet (Vol. I, p. 150, footnote) considers 
an authority, since he took the Franciscan habit in 1557 and hence had 
occasion to gather information from those of his brethren as well as from 
others who had known FF. Risby and Rich. 

11. From this declaration as well as from the king's offer to grant 
them full pardon, it would seem that the two friars suffered death for refus- 
ing to deny the C^atholic doctrine of the spiritual supremacy of the Bishop 
of Rome in the Church. See Gaudentius, Bedeutung und Verdienste dea 
Frarusiskanerordens im Kampfe gegen den Protestantismus, p. 28, foot- 
note 4. 



50 FRANCISCANS AND 

toward the dangling body and cut the rope by which it was 
suspended. With a dismal thump, the body fell to the floor 
of the scaffold. Now a scene was enacted that can be better 
imagined than described. Seizing the huge knife, the execu- 
tioner thrust it into the friar 's abdomen and ripped open his 
body. All this while, the helpless victim, still living and 
conscious, moved his lips in silent prayer. Then the execu- 
tioner thrust his sacrilegious hand through the gash he had 
made, tore out the still palpitating heart, held it up to the 
people and exclaimed in cold derision, ' ' Behold the heart of 
a traitor.'^ Finally, after extracting the entrails from the 
bleeding corpse and throwing them into the fire, he severed 
the head, quartered the body, and threw the limbs into the 
boiling caldron ; later, they were exposed to public view on 
the gates of London, while the head was fastened to a pole 
and placed on London Bridge. 

All eyes turned toward Fr. Rich when his name was called. 
With mingled emotions of pride and grief he had witnessed 
the horrible sufferings under which his confrere had passed 
to his eternal reward. Now it was his turn to die a similar 
death for the faith. With fearless determination, he stepped 
forth and mounted the ladder. While the executioner was 
placing the rope about his neck, the noble friar made the 
offering of his life to God in the words of the Royal Prophet : 
"I will freely sacrifice to thee, and will give praise to thy 
name, God : because it is good. ' ' When the officer in the 
king's name offered him life and liberty if he would do the 
king's bidding, he smiled complacently and declared that 
nothing in this life could separate him from his supreme 
Master ; that, on the contrary, he deemed it a privilege to be 
allowed to die in defence of Catholic truth. This was 
enough. Without further delay, he was thrown from the 
ladder, cut down, and while still living subjected to the same 
inhuman treatment as Fr. Risby. When the executioner 
seized his heart to tear it out, the martyr said with a broken 
voice, * * That which thou hast in thy hand is consecrated to 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 51 

God." At this, the brutal executioner smiled disdainfully 
and completed his bloody work.^^ 

As FF. Peyto and Elstow had been the first publicly to 
denounce the king 's wanton policy against his lawful queen, 
so now again two Franciscans were among the first to suffer 
martyrdom in defence of papal supremacy. Although 
Mother Church has not yet conferred the honor of her altars 
on FF. Risby and Rich/^ they are commemorated in the 
Franciscan Marty rology, on June 3, in these terms: ''At 
London in England, the suffering of the Blessed Martyrs, 
Richard Risby, guardian of the friary at Canterbury, and 
Hugh Rich, likewise guardian of the friary at Richmond, 
who in defence of the Catholic faith, at the command of 
Henry VIII, King of England, were executed in a horrible 
manner. ' ' 

12. Besides FF. Risby and Rich, two Benedictines of Canterbury and 
twQ secular priests were executed on this occasion. 

13. That their names are not on the list of the English martyrs 
beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, is probably owing to the fact that their 
martyrdom antedates the formal passing of the Act of Supremacy by seven 
months. 



CHAPTER V 

RAGING OF THE STORM, 1534-1536 

Franciscans continue to oppose the king's divorce and his 
usurped supremacy — Fr. Pecock's sermon — First step 
toward the suppression of their province — Cromwell, 
vicegerent and vicar general — Hilsey and Browne, 
''grand visitors'' of all mendicant friars — Their instruc- 
tions — They visit the Franciscans at Richmond and 
Greenwich — Visitation of Southampton — Loyalty of the 
friars — All Franciscans arrested and imprisoned — Their 
friaries in the hands of the king — Subsequent lot of ihe 
ejected friars — Some released from prison and banished 
— Many succumb to the hardships of prison life. 

Despite the rigorous measures which Henry VIII had 
taken against them, the Franciscans at home and abroad 
were causing the crown much trouble and anxiety. Fr. 
Curson, vicar of Greenwich, exhorted Fr. Robinson of Rich- 
mond to hold a sermon at St. Paul's Cross in defence of their 
lawful queen. Furthermore, he publicly praised the hero- 
ism which Fr. Elstow had recently manifested and supplied 
his needs during his imprisonment at Bedford.^ Again, a 
certain Fr. John Laurence^ informed Cromwell that two of 
his brethren, FF. Hugh Payn and Cornelius were providing 
the banished Fr. VqjXo with books, and that, as he had rea- 
son to believe, they had also visited the queen at Buckden. 
Both friars were subsequently arrested and examined. 
Though no incriminating evidence could be found against 
them, the friars nevertheless declared themselves adherents 

1. Hope, The First Divorce of Henry VIII, p. 278. 

2. He was a priest and apparently an accomplice of Fr. Lyst, who com- 
mends him to Cromwell, calling him Father Larans. See infra (John 
Forest, note 15). 

52 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 53 

of the queen ; wherefore, Cromwell, reporting the matter to 
the king, asked leave to have them racked.^ One of the 
entries which Cromwell made in his Remembrances about 
this time is very significant. "To know," he writes, 
''whether Vaughan shall go forward or return. Touching 
Fr. Risby 's examination of the letter sent by Peyto to Payn 
the friar. To remember to send for Friar Rich to Rich- 
mond, of the letters lately come from Rome to the minister 
of the Friars Observants, and of the communication between 
Beeke and a friar, and to know the eifect of those letters, 
which letters were directed from Elstow. To know what 
way the king will take with all the said malefactors. ' ' The 
above-mentioned Stephen Vaughan was one of the spies 
whom Cromwell had sent abroad to gather information. On 
August 3, 1533, he wrote to Cromwell that Fr. Peyto, who 
was staying in the Franciscan friary at Antwerp, had just 
published a book against the king's divorce, that he was 
visited every week by a friar from England, and that his 
friends in England were giving him pecuniary assistance. 
Later, on October 21, he again wrote, saying that ''Peyto 
like his brethren is a hypocrite, a tiger clad in sheepskin, a 
perilous knave, and evil reporter of the king, and ought to 
be shamefully punished. Would to God, ' ' he adds, ' ' I could 
get him by any policy. I will work what I can. Whatever 
Peyto does, I will find means for the king to know. I have 
laid a bait for him. He can not wear the cloaks and cowls 
sent over to him from England, they are so many. ' '* 

Equally bold and unyielding were the Franciscans when, 
early in the spring of 1534, the matter of royal supremacy 
came to a head. Two of their number, as we have seen, 
were among the first to suffer martyrdom for opposing it. 
' ' Of the whole body of the clergy, ' ' Gasquet observes, ' ' none 
withstood the policy of Henry with greater fearlessness and 
pertinacity of purpose than the Franciscan Observants.'"* 

3. Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 19 ; see also Gasquet, Henry VIII 
and the English Monasteries, Vol. I, p. 166. 

4. Ibidem, pp. 33 seq. 

5. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. I, p. 155. 



54 FRANCISCANS AND 

On the very eve of Henry 's rupture with Rome, on Passion 
Sunday, March 22, 1534, Fr. Pecock, guardian of the friary 
at Southampton, preached in St. Swinthin's cathedral at 
Winchester. Though fully realizing the terrible conse- 
quences for himself as well as for his brethren, the bold friar 
openly defended the rights of the Pope. He exhorted his 
hearers to imitate the example of St. Maurice, who suffered 
martyrdom rather than offend God by executing the unjust 
demands of the prince. * ' Here are many hearers, ' ' he said, 
' ' and they not all of one capacity. Some there be that un- 
derstand me and some peradventure that understand me not, 
but otherwise do take me and shall report me, that I do 
speak my mind.'' Then, after lamenting the diversity of 
opinions then agitating and misleading the public, he warned 
his hearers against certain books that had of late been pub- 
lished to further the cause of the king. Taking up a volume, 
he read a number of authorities to prove that, according to 
the teaching and institution of Christ, the Pope alone, as 
successor of St. Peter in the see of Rome, had supreme juris- 
diction in the Church. One of Cromwell 's spies happened to 
be present in the church, and, on April 7, reported the mat- 
ter to his master. In due time, the mayor of Southampton 
received instructions to arrest Fr. Pecock and to convey him 
to London. The valiant preacher was brought before Crom- 
well, but at the solicitation of friends he was permitted to 
return to his friary.^ 

That Henry YIII was determined to establish his usurped 
supremacy at any cost, became clear when, on April 20, 1534, 
the Holy Maid of Kent and her adherents were barbarously 
executed at Tyburn. By this time, he was fully convinced 
that he would find in the Franciscans his most formidable 
and influential opponents. Hence, when relations with 
Rome were severed and he was declared head of the Church 
in England, his first acts of tyranny were naturally directed 
against them and their friaries. So far, he had dealt only 

6. Ibidem, pp. 169 seq. ; see also Stone, Faithful Unto Death, pp. 31 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 55 

with individual members of their Order, apparently in the 
hope that sooner or later the others would submit. But now 
when he saw that neither the banishment of FF. Peyto and 
Elstow, nor the recent execution of FF. Risby and Rich had 
in any way intimidated their confreres, he became enraged 
and, urged on by Cromwell and his clique, decided on a cam- 
paign of general persecution against his one-time friends and 
favorites. 

Henry's first act as head of the Church in England was 
to vest his zealous minister Thomas Cromwell with unlimited 
powers in matters spiritual. The crafty and unscrupulous 
politician was appointed vicegerent and vicar general of the 
realm with authority to preside over the meetings of the 
clergy. Wholly subservient to his royal master, he left 
nothing undone to further ''the godly reformation and re- 
dress of errors, heresies and abuses in the said church."^ 
To this end, John Hilsey, a Dominican, and Dr. George 
Browne, a prior of the Augustinian hermits, were made 
superiors general and ''grand visitors" of all the friaries 
belonging to the mendicant Orders.® "Their instructions 
were precise and intended to gauge the feeling of the friars 
very thoroughly. The members of every convent or friary 
in England were to be assembled in their chapter houses 
and examined separately concerning their faith and obedi- 
ence to Henry. The oath of allegiance to Anne Boleyn was 
to be administered to them, and they were bound to swear 
solemnly that they would preach and persuade the people to 
accept the royal supremacy, to confess that the Bishop of 
Rome had no more power than any other bishop and to call 
him Pope no longer. Further, the sermons of each preacher 
were to be carefully examined, and if not orthodox they were 
to be burned. Every friar was to be strictly enjoined to 
commend the king as head of the Church, the queen, 

7. Lingard, History of England, Vol. V, p. 25. 

8. Both these traitors subsequently received from the king their 
"thirty pieces of silver" in the shape of bishoprics. John Hilsey, after the 
martyrdom of Blessed John Fisher, was raised to the see of Rochester; 
while George Browne became Archbishop of Dublin. 



56 FRANCISCANS AND 

the archbishop of Canterbury and the clergy to the 
prayers of the faithful. Lastly, each house was *to be 
obliged to show its gold, silver, and other movable goods, and 
deliver an inventory of them,' and to take a common oath, 
sealed with the convent seal, to observe the above orders. ' '* 

This general visitation of all the English friaries began 
in the spring of 1534. The Franciscans had, indeed, little 
mercy to expect from these visitors, and less from the en- 
raged king and his minister. Their two convents at Green- 
wich and Richmond had already shown themselves most un- 
relenting in their opposition to the king's lawless policy. 
Hence they became the first objects of his wrath and venge- 
ance. Rowland Lee^^ and Thomas Bedyll were commis- 
sioned to visit them and to propose the prescribed articles. 
Shortly after the execution of the two guardians, FF. Rich 
and Risby, Cromwell received word from the visitors that 
together with the Carthusians of Sheen who had now taken 
the required oaths, they were employing every means to win 
over the neighboring Franciscans of Richmond ; that so far, 
however, they had met with little success, although several 
conferences had been held with the friars. Finally, on June 
13, Dr. George Browne informed Lee and Bedyll to bring 
the matter regarding the friaries of Richmond and Green- 
wich to a speedy issue. How shrewdly the royal visitors pro- 
ceeded and how resolutely the friars defended the rights of 
the Holy See, has been handed down in a letter which Crom- 
well received from the two commissioners after the visita- 
tion." 

Saturday night, June 13, between ten and eleven o 'clock, 
Lee and Bedyll arrived at the friary of Richmond. On the 
following morning, they opened legal proceedings with the 
superior and one of the senior friars, Sebastian by name. 
Thereupon, they assembled the community and tried their 

9. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. I, pp. 173 seq. 

10. The same who officiated at Henry's secret marriage with Anne 
Boleyn. 

11. For a copy of this letter see Wright, Suppression of the Monas- 
teries, pp. 41 seq. It is on this letter that the subsequent account is based. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 57 

utmost to make them subscribe to the articles. But the 
friars "showed themselves very untoward in that behalf." 
Wherefore, the cunning visitors resorted to a trick. They 
proposed that the four discreets or councillors of the friary 
be empowered by the rest to decide and act in the name of 
all and to come the next morning to the Greenwich friary 
with the official convent seal. To this the unsuspecting 
brethren agreed. Elated over their success, the commis- 
sioners departed. 

On the following day, visitation was held in the Green- 
wich friary. Here, too, the members of the community were 
one in their opposition to the king 's demands. Accordingly, 
the visitors advised them ''to put the whole matter in the 
hands of the seniors or discreets, ' ' as their brethren at Rich- 
mond had done. The royal agents later informed Cromwell 
that they did this ' ' to avoid superfluous words and idle rea- 
soning, and especially to provide that if the discreets should 
refuse to consent, it were better after our minds to strain a 
few than a multitude.'* But the friars saw the trap and 
with one voice refused to entrust the affair to the four dis- 
creets. The proposed articles, they rightly maintained, con- 
cerned each member of the community personally, and each 
would take the salvation of his soul into his own hands. 
The friars, therefore, appeared individually before the royal 
commissioners, who employed every means short of torture 
to make them submit to the king's demands. But they soon 
perceived that they were dealing with men who knew their 
duty and who were determined to fulfill it at all hazards. 
Neither threats nor promises could shake their constancy, 
especially with regard to the usurped spiritual supremacy 
of the king. The royal visitors were forced to admit that 
they * ' found them in one mind of contradiction and dissent 
from the said articles, but specially against this article : That 
the Bishop of Rome must be considered to possess no greater 
authority or jurisdiction than any other individual bishop 
in England or elsewhere in their respective diocese." The 
valiant friars argued that not only the teaching of Christ 



58 FRANCISCANS AND 

but also the Franciscan Rule which they had vowed, bound 
them to loyalty to the Holy See. The wily visitors on their 
part averred that this commandment of their Rule did not 
bind the English Franciscans, because there were no mem- 
bers of the Order in England when St. Francis wrote the 
Rule; that, furthermore, the clause containing this com- 
mandment had been inserted in the Rule by ambitious friars, 
who hoped thereby to gain the favor of the Pope, and that 
finally by the law of God, which stood above every religious 
Rule, they owed obedience and allegiance to their king. 
Then, to back up their sophisms, they added that both arch- 
bishops of the kingdom, as also the bishops of London, Win- 
chester, Durham, and Bath, with many learned prelates and 
famous clerics had already subscribed to the articles. But 
the fearless friars remained firm ; what others in the realm 
had done in this all-important question was of no concern to 
them. In short, all the subtle reasoning of Lee and Bedyll 
"feould not sink into their obstinate heads, and worn in 
custom of obedience to the Pope." Finally, the visitors 
departed, greatly vexed at the "obstinacy" of these men of 
God. ''Sorry we be," they wrote to Cromwell, ''we can 
not bring them to no better frame of mind and order in this 
behalf, as our faithful mind was to do, for the accomplish- 
ment of the king 's pleasure. ' ' 

Of only one more friary is mention made as regards the 
royal visitation. When the king's agent, on July 15, came 
to the Franciscans at Southampton, the afore-mentioned 
guardian, Fr. Pecock, finding the official was not Dr. Hilsey, 
as he had reason to suppose, became suspicious and de- 
manded the visitor's credentials. "Not knowing what to 
do," the guardian later wrote to Cromwell, "we desired him 
to show us his authority, and he showed us a letter to your 
mastership so ill-written that I could not read it plainly, 
under seal, as he said, of Dr. Hilsey; and knowing that he 
was a wise father and a good clerk we did not believe it, but 
begged him to show us the first writing again to see whether 
Dr. Hilsey had any power to substitute. This he refused, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 59 

and so we would not let him proceed and he threatened us 
with the king 's displeasure and yours. ' '^^ 

Apparently, there are no further records to show how 
the royal visitors fared in the remaining Franciscan friaries. 
Still, from the subsequent proceedings against their inmates 
it is quite clear that these communities, too, steadfastly re- 
fused to put their name to the articles. Indeed, the one 
or the other of their number seems, at least temporarily, to 
have declared himself willing to take the oath of allegiance. 
Thus, for instance. Bishop Tunstall wrote to Cromwell on 
November 13, commending to the king's mercy two Fran- 
ciscans who had previously been expelled from the friary at 
Newark for adhering to the Pope and banished to Scotland, 
whence after suffering great hardships they had returned. 
These two friars were Thomas Danyell, professed at Can- 
terbury, and Henry Bukkery, a lay brother not yet pro- 
fessed. "Surely," wrote Tunstall, "best it were to receive 
them to mercy, for other fault we cannot find in them, but 
their obstinacy to have cleaved heretofore to the Bishop of 
Rome, which now they will leave and forsake, as they say to 
us." Commenting on this incident, Stone says, "It was a 
sorry triumph for the king and Cromwell that of the whole 
Order, but two starved and hunted individuals could be 
brought, by all the machinery of persecution at their com- 
mand, to falter an unwilling denial of the Pope's author- 
ity. "^^ Clearly, nothing short of death and destruction 
could silence these formidable champions of papal authority 
and jurisdiction, because "secluded from the commerce and 
pleasures of the world, they felt fewer temptations to sacri- 
fice their consciences to the command of their sovereign ; and 
seemed more eager to court the crown, than to flee from the 
pains of martyrdom. ' '^* 

Hence we can imagine the fury of the king and of Crom- 
well, when the reports of the commissioners reached them. 



12. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. I, p. 177. 

13. Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 43. 

14. Llngard, Vol V, p. 18. 



60 FRANCISCANS AND 

Without delay, a decree was drawn up providing for the 
arrest of the Franciscans and the seizure of their friaries. 
What bitter pangs and gloomy forebodings must have 
preyed on the spirits of these men of God when the king's 
officers appeared at the various convents to carry out his 
orders. Their six houses were declared forfeited to the 
crown and were temporarily made over to the Augustinian 
Order. Of the friars themselves, whom the officers arrested 
as prisoners of the king, some were confined in other religious 
houses of the kingdom, while the majority were thrown into 
prison. On June 18, 1534, a certain Leonard Smith writing 
to Lord Lisle remarks incidentally, *'No news but that two 
carts full of friars came to the Tower two days ago. ' ' And 
in a letter which Chapuys addressed to Emperor Charles V 
under date of August 11, 1534, we read: ''Of seven (?) 
houses of Observants, five have already been emptied of 
friars, because they refused to swear to the statutes made 
against the Pope. Those in the two others expect also to be 
expelled. "^^ By August 29, 1534, fully a year before any 
other religious house was molested, the agents of Cromwell 
had finished with the Franciscans. Far and wide the help- 
less friars were scattered over the kingdom, while their lowly 
convents, which as centers of virtue and learning enjoyed 
nation-wide esteerm, were now in the hands of strangers.^® 

The total number of Franciscans thus turned out^of their 
houses can not be fixed with any degree of certainty. It is 
estimated that two hundred were expelled. Of these a num- 
ber were lodged with the Conventuals, who were forced to 
treat them as prisoners.^^ * 'All the Observants of the king- 
dom,'' Chapuys writes, "have been driven from their mon- 

15. stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 38. 

16. Since the Franciscan friaries had little or no temporal goods, it 
was not greed but sheer hatred that prompted the king to suppress them. 

17. It would be wide of the mark to infer from this that the Con- 
ventuals were eager abettors of the king's lawless measures against the 
Franciscans. They were rather compelled to treat them as the king's 
prisoners and perhaps were even exhorted thereto by the Franciscans 
themselves as the lesser of two evils. Furthermore, it is safe to say that 
the liberties which in time a number of the imprisoned friars enjoyed were 
to some extent owing either to the intervention of the Conventuals or to 
their unwillingness to do the king's full bidding. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 61 

asteries for refusing the oath against the Holy See, and have 
been distributed in several monasteries, where they are 
locked up in chains, and worse treated than they could be in 
prison. ' '^® It seems, however, that in some cases their con- 
finement was less severe, and that a number of them suc- 
ceeded in making good their escape, and either remained 
in hiding with friends or crossed over to Scotland and Bel- 
gium. Thus, early in July, FF. Hugh Payn and Thomas 
Hayfield, both of the Newark friary, made an attempt to 
flee to the continent. Disguised in secular dress, they got as 
far as Cardiff. Here they obtained passage on a ship bound 
for Brittany. They were about to embark when the king's 
men discovered their identity and led them off to prison. 
Dr. Hilsey, who arrived shortly after, had them conveyed to 
London. ' ' You shall perceive more of their crafty fashion, ' ' 
he wrote to Cromwell. ' ' In all places where they come they 
persuade the people to hold to the bishop of Rome, calling 
him Pope and saying that they will die in his cause and 
never forsake him while they live. They rail at the books 
set forth cum privilegio, calling them heresies, and heretics 
that set them forth." He also accused them of ridiculing 
the Princess Elizabeth, by saying she had been baptized in 
hot water, which, however, had not been hot enough for 
her.^» 

A letter written by Fr. Lybert to James Becky and dated 
October 25, 1534, gives us a glimpse into the condition of the 
imprisoned friars. The writer declares that he and Fr. 
Abraham are poorly lodged with the Grey Friars at Stam- 
ford. They are anxious to learn what their confreres at 
Greenwich have done or intend to do. *'We hear," he 
writes, ''that they are all sworn, and have somewhat changed 
their government, at which we marvel.^^ Notwithstanding, 
if they think that God is pleased with it, their conscience dis- 
charged, the world edified, and any profit may come of it, 

18. Gasquet, Henry VJII .... Monasteries, Vol. I, p. 189. 

19. Ibidem, pp. 180 seq. 

20. Cromwell, we may readily suppose, had rumors of this kind pub- 
lished, in order to deceive and bewilder the other members of the province. 



62 FRANCISCANS AND 

we desire to have a more perfect knowledge; and then we 
shall do as God shall inspire us, either suffer pain still, and 
be enclosed, or else go at liberty, as they do." Then the 
troubled friar asks that a number of articles be sent him, 
which he had forgotten on his hurried departure, and won- 
ders that his letter, written about six weeks before, had till 
now remained unanswered. In conclusion, he requests that 
his present writing be burnt and sends greetings to his 
brethren and to his relatives.^^ 

More deplorable, of course, was the lot of those Francis- 
cans who had been thrown into prison. Accustomed to the 
peace and quiet of convent life, they were now compelled to 
share company with the very dregs of humanity and were 
loaded down with every misery and hardship that these 
dreadful abodes of filth and disease could offer. For the 
time, Henry's anger knew no bounds; and there is every 
reason to believe that neither insults nor torture were spared 
to force the friars into submission. The following fact, re- 
lated by Bourchier, Mason, Wadding, and other reliable his- 
torians, shows to some extent to what frightful sufferings 
these men of God were subjected. In 1537, after three years 
of hard durance, a number of Franciscans w^ere released 
from their dungeons. Four of them, however, FF. Thomas 
Packingham, Bonaventure Roo, John Tuit, and Richard 
Carter, died a few days later. ''The hardships they had 
undergone in their confinement, ' ' Parkinson explains, ' ' had 
sunk them so low that they were not able to recover. ' '^^ The 
Franciscan Martyrology commemorates them on August 9. 

The only one who ventured to intercede for the impris- 
oned friars was Sir Thomas Wriothesley, a member of the 
Privy Council. Personal contact with them had made him 
their friend and admirer. Being on intimate terms with 
Cromwell, he petitioned him to liberate the friars and give 
them leave to quit the country. Though the calculating 
minister was willing to get rid of them at any cost, the 

21. stone, Fmthful Unto Death, pp. 41 seq. ; Gasquet, Henrp VIIJ 
.... Monasteries, Vol. I, pp. 191 seq. 

22. Parkinson, Antiquities of the English Franciscans, p. 238. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 63 

king proved less inclined to grant the request of Wriothesley. 
One thing alone had so far prevented him from sating his 
thirst for vengeance by sending the friars to the block. He 
knew that ever since his infamous dealings in the case of the 
Holy Maid of Kent, a strong feeling of dissatisfaction and 
indignation had taken hold of the people, which became 
especially noticeable when the Franciscans were suppressed 
and imprisoned. Even at court there were such as resented 
his usurping of the spiritual supremacy and thought his pro- 
ceedings against the friars too severe. Therefore, when 
Cromwell approached him with Wriothesley 's petition, he 
found it safer to feign mercy and had a number of friars 
set at liberty. 

Parkinson Writes under the year 1537, ' ' The execution of 
many of the Franciscan Observants (in prison ever since 
1534, or 1535) having been delayed by the mediation of their 
friend Sir Thomas Wriothesley, and not one of them coming 
into the king's measures, or subscribing to his supremacy, 
etc., it was now proposed to his majesty (as Sanders writes) 
that they should be some way or other disposed of, lest 
others by their example, might become more resolute. And 
now, though the king seemed inclined to have them all cut 
off, or hanged at once, yet being apprehensive of the infamy 
of such a fact, because they were numerous, and being will- 
ing to show some favor to the Privy Counsellor Wriothesley, 
who had pleaded hard for them, he spared some of them, 
who went into banishment, partly into the Low Countries, 
and others into Scotland. "^^ To this action of Henry prob- 
ably refers Cromwell's entry in his Remembrances: ''Item 
to remember the friars of Greenwich to have license to go to 
Ireland. "2* 

Not all Franciscans, however, were set at liberty. Many 
had to languish in prison often for years, until death put an 
end to their sufferings. From the moment they were shut 
up in the silence and gloom of their foul dungeon, nothing 

23. Ibidem, p. 238. 

24. Gasquet, Henry .... Monasteries, Vol. I, p. 190. 



64 FRANCISCANS AND 

more was heard of them. It is quite probable that some 
were executed in secret, and that in consequence no account 
of their martyrdom has ever been committed to writiag. 
From a Contemporary Account of Bishop Fisher and Sir 
Thomas More preserved in the Vatican, we learn that "an 
immense number of them all perished either on the scaffold 
or by starvation or through their sufferings in prison. "^^ 
Parkinson informs us that ''thirty- two of the same Order 
were removed out of the prisons of London, and being 
coupled two and two together with iron chains, were sent 
into divers other prisons of the nation, that they might 
perish with less murmuring and disturbance of the people ; 
for as the author of the Franciscan Martyrology says, there 
was such an universal discontent amongst the king's sub- 
jects, and such loud outcries, even of persons of quality, on 
the account of the imprisonment of all the Observants, that 
his majesty thought fit to set some of them at liberty, and 
that these 32 were reserved to be made examples of. Besides 
these, others were starved with hunger, as an author 
writes,^^ and others suffocated with the intolerable stench of 
loathsome prisons, or perished by the inconveniences and 
hardships of their confinement. "^^ Hueber, in his Meno- 
logium, mentions, for September 24, thirty-four friars who 
died about the year 1537. And finally, on July 31, the 
Franciscan Martyrology of Arturus commemorates thirty- 
two friars "who, imprisoned by Henry VIII for the Catho- 
lic faith and conveyed, burdened two and two with most 
heavy chains, to different places, died in the Lord, after 
having been tortured with hunger and cold and subjected 
to other sufferings and hardships. ' ' 

25. Pocock, Records of the Refornuition, Vol. II, pp. 553 seq. 

26. The author referred to is Fr. Francis Davenport, who flourished In 
the beginning of the next century and played a prominent part in the 
founding of the second English province. 

27. Parkinson, p. 238. 



CHAPTER VI 

RAGING OF THE STORM (CONTINUED), 1536-1538 

Disaffection among the people — The Pilgrimage of Grace — 
Share of the Franciscans in the northern rising — Re- 
newed hostilities against them — Three Franciscan mar- 
tyrs: Ven, Antony Brookhy, Ven. Thomas Cort, Yen. 
Thomas Belchiam. 

After the suppression and expulsion of the Franciscans, 
a series of events in England conspired to allay for a time 
at least the rebellious pride of Henry VIII. ''There was 
hardly any period of his reign," Gasquet writes, "when the 
king and his counsellors were more harassed than during 
the latter half of this year (1535). The foreign relations 
of the country were becoming strained. The people at home 
were restless and disheartened. The longest memory could 
not recall a summer more unfavorable to agriculture. The 
corn harvest was well nigh a complete failure, the yield be- 
ing scarcely more than the third part of an average crop. 
It had rained, so said the people, ever since the execution 
of the Carthusians, and they looked upon this as a mark of 
divine anger at the misdeeds of Henry. "^ The following 
January when it was learned that Queen Catherine had 
passed away, a cry of heartfelt sympathy and regret rose 
from the masses ; which was changed to one of triumph and 
gratification, however, when, four months later, Anne 
Boleyn, the cause of the late disturbances, mounted the 
scaffold to pay the penalty of her many crimes. 

Meanwhile, especially in the north of England, the sup- 
pression of the lesser monasteries was creating widespread 
discontent, and in the autumn of 1536, the commons rose in 

1. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. I, p. 244. 

65 



66 FRANCISCANS AND 

armed protest against the encroachments of the crown on 
their religious and political freedom. ' ' The suppression of 
the abbeys," says Gasquet, ''was felt to be a blow to re- 
ligion in those parts no less than a hardship to the poor, 
and a detriment to the country at large. The royal su- 
premacy was looked upon as founded only on Henry's whim 
and as a pretension without precedent in history, while the 
renunciation of papal authority was held to be subversive of 
the principle of unity in the Christian Church, and the first 
step towards diversity of doctrine and practice."^ 

The insurrection, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, 
broke out in Lincolnshire and in a short time spread over 
the whole of northern England. In October, 1536, 40,000 
armed citizens headed by Robert Aske and reinforced by 
about 5,000 knights and gentlemen, marched to Doncaster, 
where the Duke of Norfolk had united his forces with the 
armed tenantry of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Wholly un- 
prepared to quell this formidable array by force of arms, 
Henry resorted to lying and treachery. At the suggestion 
of Norfolk, Robert Aske had the demands of the commons 
drawn up in twenty-four articles. These were sent to the 
king for approbation, who feigning some reluctance, at last 
made far-reaching concessions and even offered the insur- 
gents a general pardon. Not suspecting the king's base 
design, Aske prevailed on his followers to disarm and re- 
turn to their homes. When, however, the king's promises 
were not fulfilled, the people became restless and in January 
rose a second time. Now Henry was prepared to meet them. 
What followed was a series of cruel and bloody measures 
against the leaders of the rebellion and of renewed hostili- 
ties against the religious houses of the kingdom. "The 
collapse of the movement," Gasquet maintains, "removed 
every restraint upon the autocratic power of the crown and 
opened the way for further seizure of monastic and church 
property. ' '^ 

2. Ibidem, Vol. II, p. 101. 

3. Ibidem, Vol. II, p. 158. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 67 

Precisely what share the Franciscans had in these north- 
ern risings is hard to determine. That many of them were 
still living with the Conventuals in these parts and were 
again exerting their influence for the spiritual and temporal 
welfare of the people, seems certain from the fact that of the 
twenty-four articles drawn up by the insurgents the sixth 
one read, "To have the friars Observants restored to their 
houses."* Furthermore, during the subsequent court pro- 
ceedings against the insurgents, William Stapleton testified 
that ''one Sir Thomas Johnson, otherwise called Bonaven- 
ture, an Observant friar, who was sworn . . . and as- 
signed to the said (Grey Friars') house of Beverley 
. was very busy going betwixt . . . the wild 
people, oft laying scriptures to maintain their purpose;" 
and that he even "offered himself to go into the quarrel in 
harness to the field and so did to the first stay. ' '^ 

Naturally, these weighty accusations, whether true or 
false, reenkindled the king's hatred of the friars. Hardly 
had the rebellion been put down when, on March 17, 1537, 
he wrote to the Duke of Norfolk that "from my lord of 
Durham's declaration and other evidences, we see that the 
Friars Observants are disciples of the Bishop of Rome, and 
sowers of sedition. You shall therefore do your best to 
apprehend the friars as prisoners, without liberty to speak 
to any man, till we shall determine our further pleasure 
about them."® What this "further pleasure about them" 
amounted to, became clear a few months later when three 
Franciscans died a martyr 's death for their allegiance to the 
Holy See.^ 

Among the Franciscans imprisoned in 1534 was Vener- 
able Antony Brookby (or Brorbey), a man of singular holi- 
ness and profound learning. During the early part of the 
reign of Henry VIII, he was engaged as lecturer in divinity 

4. stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 88. 

5. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. II, pp. 137 seq. 

6. stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 75. 

7. Our chief source of information regarding these three martyrs Is 
Bourchier, Hist. Eccl. de Martyrio FF. Ord. Divi Francisei, pp. 11-28. As 
to the historical value of the narrative, see supra, p. 



68 FRANCISCANS AND 

in Magdalen College, Oxford, where he had received the 
licentiate in theolog;^^ and enjoyed the reputation of being 
a master of Greek and Hebrew.^ He was, moreover, a force- 
ful preacher, and his eloquence together with his zeal and 
learning made him a most formidable opponent of the king's 
encroachments on the rights of the Holy See. Hence, in 
1534, when the religious persecution broke out, Fr. Antony 
was lodged with others of his Order in prison. Later, it 
seems, he was released and placed with the Conventuals in 
London. Here, having obtained license to preach, he again 
went about instructing and confirming the people in their 
holy faith. 

It was apparently in the spring of 1537 that, during a 
sermon held in St. Lawrence Church, he boldly denounced 
the king for his wanton rupture with Rome and seizure of 
the religious houses. Suddenly, he was interrupted by a 
man in the audience, who leaped to his feet and threatening 
him with the king's vengeance demanded that he hold his 
peace. It was one of Cromwell's spies. But fear had no 
meaning for Fr. Antony; although he realized what the 
sequel would be, he quietly continued his sermon. Without 
delay, the spy reported the affair and received orders for 
the friar's arrest. Accordingly, when some time after, Fr. 
Antt)ny was again preaching in the church of St. Lawrence, 
the spy accompanied by royal officers entered the sacred 
edifice. The preacher saw them and knew what they had 
come for. Having finished the sermon, he fearlessly de- 
scended from the pulpit at the foot of which the king 's men 
were waiting for him. Gladly he suffered them to bind his 
hands behind his back and to lead him off to Newgate. He 
rejoiced in the anticipation of a martyr's crown, when the 
prison gates closed and he found himself among thieves, 
murderers, assassins, and other criminals. His cell was the 
darkest and filthiest in Newgate, *'in which the memory of 
man, no one had been condemned to lie, so that the prisoners 
themselves were astonished at so much cruelty." Here, 

8. See Parkinson, Antiquities of the English Franciscans, p. 239. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 69 

amid the gibes and curses of his fellow prisoners, the valiant 
champion prayed to God for strength and perseverance in 
the impending struggle.^ 

Summoned before the royal commissioners, Fr. Antony 
maintained with unflinching boldness that the king's as- 
sumed supremacy was contrary to the ordination of Christ 
who, as the Scriptures taught, had built his Church solely 
on the Rock of Peter. He declared himself ready to suffer 
even the most cruel death rather than deny that faith which 
for centuries past had been the glory and pride of England, 
and which was still a treasure he cherished above all earthly 
things. Finally, when his tormentors saw that threats and 
promises availed nothing, they ordered the rack to be 
brought in. The friar's face was radiant with joy when the 
executioners led him to the instrument of torture. Rudely 
they thrust him beneath the wooden framework and fastened 
his wrists and ankles to the rollers on both ends. These 
were then drawn in opposite directions, till the body of the 
helpless friar hung suspended in the rack. Then the fright- 
ful torture began. After every refusal to admit the king's 
supremacy, the rollers were drawn with ever increasing 
force, so that finally every bone in his body was wrenched 
from its socket. 

During this inhuman torture, the martyr fixed his gaze 
heavenward and prayed. A deadly pallor came over his 
countenance, convulsive twitchings about the eyes and lips 
told of his intense sufferings ; there was danger that he would 
die on the rack. For this reason, at the command of the 
judge to desist for the present, he was released from the 
bed of pain and dragged back into the dreadful dungeon in 
Newgate. Lying helpless on a heap of rotten straw, the 
valiant friar was left to breathe his last in utter gloom and 
solitude. In consequence of the cruel racking, he was un- 
able to stir hand or foot. It was, moreover, the month of 
July and owing to the unbearable summer heat a burning 

9. See Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 77, on the authority of Barezzo 
Barezzl. 



70 FRANCISCANS AND 

fever soon set in. Since he could not even bring his hand 
to his mouth, he suffered exceedingly from thirst and hun- 
ger, and he would have died of starvation, had not a pious 
woman purchased leave to visit the prison and give the friar 
food and drink through the iron prison bars. 

During the twenty-five days which Fr. Antony spent in 
this pitiful condition, repeated attempts were made to wrest 
from him a denial of papal supremacy. But in vain ; the 
faithful friar remained true to the end. Though his suffer- 
ings were great, his loyalty was greater. Though, his body 
lay helpless, faint with sufferings, his noble soul exulted in 
the freedom of the children of God and gloried in the as- 
surance of an eternal reward awaiting him. Finally, the 
jailor of Newgate received orders from the king to dispatch 
the friar secretly. Accordingly, on July 19, 1537, one of 
the king's men entered the cell of Fr. Antony, and tearing 
the cord from the feeble body, strangled him. Later in the 
day, when the turnkey made his usual call, he saw the friar 
lying with his face on the wet stone pavement of the cell. 
Thinking him asleep, he tried to rouse him with a rude kick ; 
seeing that the form did not stir, he went closer — the friar 
was dead. The news of Fr. Antony's death spread like 
wildfire through the city. And when it was noised abroad 
that God was testifying to the holiness of the martyr, large 
crowds thronged Newgate to see the miracle. With min- 
gled emotions of joy and dread, they gazed on the dazzling 
light that suffused the gloomy prison and formed a halo 
about the lifeless body. Many who had remained untouched 
when Fr. Antony preached in the churches of London, were 
now at the sight of this miracle filled with compunction for 
their past weakness and they resolved then and there to 
cling to the old faith at any cost. 

Hardly had Fr. Antony passed to his eternal reward 
when another Franciscan succumbed to the cruel treatment 
of his jailers in Newgate. Venerable Thomas Cort was of 
a noble and deeply religious family. Esteemed by his breth- 
ren as a true follower of St. Francis, he was known also for 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 71 

his profound learning and great eloquence. From the very 
beginning of the religious conflict in England, Fr. Thomas 
had been among the foremost and boldest in defending the 
cause of justice and truth . It seems that he was of the num- 
ber of those friars who on the intervention of Wriothesley 
had obtained leave to quit the country. Although there are 
no records to show when he returned to his native land, it is 
certain that in the spring of 1537, he was in London pub- 
licly defending papal supremacy at the risk of liberty and 
life. In order to wipe out the hateful stain of excommuni- 
cation and to give his action in the eyes of the people the 
semblance of orthodoxy, the shrewd king had appealed to a 
General CounciL^° The Franciscans, however, were not 
slow to detect the futility of such an appeal. In a sermon 
held in the church of St. Lawrence about this time, Fr. 
Thomas boldly demonstrated to his hearers that both from 
a theological and from a historical standpoint, the Bishop 
of Rome was the supreme head of the universal Church of 
Christ, and therefore also of the Church in England ; that 
King Henry, by proclaiming himself head of the English 
Church, had arrogated to himself a title and power to which 
he could have no right whatever ; and that, accordingly, he 
was to be regarded as a heretic and schismatic, as long as 
he continued in his opposition to the Vicar of Christ. Spies 
of Cromwell were present at the sermon; and, when Fr. 
Thomas descended from the pulpit, they arrested him in the 
king's name and threw him into one of the foulest dungeons 
of Newgate. 

Despite the horrors and hardships of prison life, Fr. 
Thomas remained true to his convictions. He felt that his 
end was not far off, and he glorified God in the loathsome 
dungeon, which he hoped soon to leave for the mansions of 
eternal bliss. At the time of his imprisonment, he was in 
poor health, and the close confinement in the damp and 
filthy cell soon brought the ailing friar to death's door. 
After being in prison a few days, he took sick, and on July 

10. Ibidem, p. 78. 



72 FRANCISCANS AND 

27, 1537, just a week after the execution of Fr. Antony 
Brookby, his soul passed to heaven. 

A miracle similar to the one that attended the death of 
his fellow friar, gave testimony also to his heroic sanctity. 
Fear seized the bystanders when they beheld the grim dun- 
geon bathed in celestial light. It was the second time within 
a week that this singular spectacle was seen in Newgate. 
King Henry heard of it, and, strange to say, his better 
nature for a moment reasserted itself. His guilty conscience 
left him no peace. He feared, no doubt, that these wonder- 
ful happenings were but a final warning from Him whose 
sacred laws he had so wantonly trampled under foot, and 
who had power to hurl his black soul into the frightful 
abyss of pain and perdition. In this paroxysm of fear, the 
king gave orders that the corpse of the deceased Fr. Thomas 
should be decently buried. Accordingly, the martyr was 
laid to rest in the cemetery of the Holy Sepulcher near the 
large door of the church. In later years, Margaret Herbert, 
the wife of a glovemaker of Ghent, set a stone on the grave 
of Fr. Thomas ; it bore the inscription : 

Hac tu qui transis Christi devote viator 
In precihus, quaeso, sis mentor ipse mei}^ 

The third Franciscan who died for the faith, in the year 
1537, is Venerable Thomas Belchiam. Though only twenty- 
eight years of age, he was known as a bold and outspoken 
champion of papal supremacy. Like Fr. Thomas Cort, he 
publicly accused the king of heresy. To prove his asser- 
tion and to confirm his fellow friars in their allegiance to 
the Holy See, he published a book that began with the words, 
"They that are clothed in soft garments, are in the houses 
of kings. "^2 In this work, inspired by youthful zeal and 

11. Christ-loving traveler passirvg this way, 
Rememher, I teg thee, for my soul to pray. 

12. The book was entitled Liter Ad Fratres (A Book to the Brethren). 
See Dodd, Church History of England, Vol. I, p. 234. "One copy of the 
book was left by the author to the Observants of Greenwich. It passed 
through the hands of the eminent Franciscan Father Thomas Bourchier, 
who Intended to publish Jt, and Father Angelus Mason says it was always 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 73 

enthusiasm, he showed that by setting aside the authority of 
Rome and proclaiming himself spiritual head of the Church 
in England, the king stood in open rebellion against the 
Vicar of Christ on earth, and that, therefore, he ceased to 
belong to the fold that Christ had committed to the care of 
St. Peter and his successors. Thereupon, he scourged the 
lax morals of the royal court, calling it a haunt of sin and 
vice and declaring that *'he that will be godly must depart 
the court. ' ' Finally, he upraided the clergy of England for 
their cringing cowardice in those woful days when the 
rights of the Church and the prerogatives of the Papacy 
were at stake. He criticized especially the higher clergy of 
whom so many were sacrificing their God and their con- 
science on the altar of pride and ambition, who regardless 
of their duties as shepherds of Christ 's flock, were stooping 
to the whims of a ruthless and rebellious king. 

Needless to say, the appearance of this book added fuel 
to the fury of those against whom it was directed. The 
youthful defender of truth and morality was seized and 
thrown into prison. Here he was subjected to every kind 
of torture. But the resolute friar bore all with heroic cour- 
age and constancy. At last, when it became clear that he 
would never admit the king's usurped supremacy, he was 
brought back to prison. Now began for him a period of 
untold suffering. It was his terrible lot to die, not by the 
halter and the knife, but of disease and starvation. 

How long Fr. Thomas languished in the gloom and filth 
of his prison cell, is not known. Historians say that he was 
deprived of all necessaries of life, so that gradually his 
sturdy frame was reduced to a mere skeleton. Finally, on 
August 3, 1537, death came to his relief. The martyr passed 
to his reward, repeating the words of the Royal Prophet : 
"In thee, 0, Lord, have I trusted, let me never be con- 
founded." At the moment when he breathed his last, an 
earthquake shook the prison. The jailors were terrified. 

In the minds of the friars to print the book ; but here we lose sight of it 
entirely, and it doubtless perished, under the destroying sway of the 
refonners." Stone, Fadthful Unto Death, p. 80. 



74 FKANCISCANS AND 

and when the king heard of it, he trembled and gave orders 
that Fr. Thomas receive a decent burial. On searching the 
cell, the prison officials found a copy of the book he had 
written. It was brought to the king, who on reading it is 
said to have shed tears and lamented his utter misery. But 
this seeming repentance was only a passing fit of remorse 
and uneasiness, such as frequently came over him and em- 
bittered his last years. He soon silenced the voice of con- 
science and had the book thrown into the fire. 

It is evident that FF. Antony Brookby, Thomas Cort, 
and Thomas Belchiam suffered and died in defense of the 
Catholic dogma of papal supremacy. Arturus's Marty - 
rology and Hueber's Menologium commemorate them on 
the day on which they passed to their eternal reward. Their 
names also head the list of those 261 English martyrs whose 
cause of beatification was opened on December 9, 1886, 
when Pope Leo XIII approved the decision of the Sacred 
Congregation, providing that a Commission be appointed 
to introduce the cause. ^^ 

13. See Acta Minorum, Vol. VI (1887), p. 49. 



CHAPTER VII 

BLESSED THOMAS MORE, FRANCISCAN TERTIARY 

Early youth — At Oxford — Professional studies — With the 
Carthusians — More's public and private life — The im- 
pending storm — He resigns the chancellorship — Poverty 
and distress at Chelsea — Efforts of Anne Boleyn and 
Cromwell to ruin the ex-chancellor — Measures of the 
king against him — More rejects the Acts of Succession 
and Supremacy — In the Tower — His loyalty put to 
severe tests — Brought to trial — Found guilty of high 
treason and sentenced to death — His last days in prison 
— Beheaded on Tower Hill. 

Owing to the unexpected dispersion of the Franciscans 
and the seizure of their friaries in 1534, the extent, activity, 
and influence of the Third Order of St. Francis in medieval 
England will ever remain an unwritten chapter in the his- 
tory of the English Franciscans. From the singular popu- 
larity of the friars, however, and from their characteristic 
zeal for the welfare of the people, we may safely assume 
that during the three centuries preceding the Protestant 
Revolution, the Third Order was widely known and fos- 
tered. That this continued down to the very eve of the 
religious upheaval, is sufficiently clear from the fact that, 
besides Queen Catherine of Aragon, also Blessed Thomas 
More and his second wife, Alice Middleton, were Franciscan 
Tertiaries. It is for this reason, too, that the noble queen 
of Henry VIII and his sainted chancellor have found a place 
in these pages.^ 

1. Authorities for the statement that Blessed Thomas More was a 
Franciscan Tertiary are chiefly: Livarius Oliger, Third Order of St. 
Francis in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIV, p. 642 ; Heimbucher, Die 
Orden und Congregation der Katholischen Kirche, Vol, II, p. 492 ; Holz- 

75 



76 



FRANCISCANS AND 




BL Thomas More 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 77 

Blessed Thomas More was born February 7, 1478, in 
Milk Street, Cheapside, London. His pious and accom- 
plished father, Sir John More, Knight, served as barrister 
and later as judge in the Court of the King's Bench. His 
mother, Agnes Graunger, died a few years after the birth 
of Thomas. St. Antony's School in Threadneedle Street, 
under the direction of Nicholas Holt, was deemed the best 
of its kind in London. Here Thomas received his elementary 
training. Unusually endowed in heart and mind, he made 
rapid progress at school, and at the age of thirteen he was 
graduated with high honors. Thinking the boy too young 
for university life, his prudent father placed him as page 
in the service of Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury and Lord Chancellor of England. This saintly and 
learned prelate soon detected the superior talents of the 
quickwitted and winsome lad. To the nobles, who frequent- 
ly came to dine with him, the chancellor was wont to re- 
mark, ' ' This child here waiting at the table, whosoever shall 
live to see it, will prove a marvelous man. ' '^ At the same 
time, the sanctity and learning of the Cardinal made a last- 
ing impression on the sensitive heart of Thomas ; and it was 
in the service of this distinguished prelate, no doubt, that 
the future martyr first imbibed those lofty ideals of per- 
sonal holiness and that unflinching zeal for truth and jus- 
tice which made him so fearless an opponent of schism and 
heresy. 

apfel, Geschichte des Franziskanerordens, p. 670; Catalogus Hagiographicus 
Seraphicce Familiw in Acta Minorum (an. xxviii, p. 203 seq.), an official 
list of all the Saints, Blessed, and Venerable of the three Orders of St. 
Francis. It was published with ecclesiastical approbation in 1909, on the 
occasion of the seventh centenary of the founding of the Franciscan Order. 
On page 216, Blessed Thomas More is commemorated expressly as a mem- 
ber of the Third Order of St. Francis, a fact which we think settles the 
question. Despite these evidences. Father Cuthbert writes in The Catholic 
Encyclopedia, Vol. XIV, p. 645, "Blsssed Thomas More is frequently 
spoken of as a tertiary of St. Francis, but there seems to be no historical 
evidence to support this statement." It is not known when he joined the 
Third Order ; perhaps it was at the time when he was thinking of Joining 
the first Order of St. Francis. 

2. William Roper, Life of Sir Thomas More, Knt., p. 5. The author of 
this work was the son-in-law of the Blessed martyr, having married the 
latter's favorite daughter Margaret. From her he learned many details 
for his Life, which is, therefore, of special interest and value to the 
historian. 



78 FRANCISCANS AND 

In 1492, the Cardinal prevailed on Sir John More to let 
the boy pursue a higher course of studies at Oxford. The 
Renaissance had already found its way to the university, 
and Thomas conceived a strong predilection for the ancient 
classics. "For the short time of his abode," Harpsfield re- 
lates, ''being not fully two years, and for his age, he won- 
derfully profited in the Latin and Greek tongues ; where if 
he had settled and fixed himself, and run his full race in 
the study of the liberal sciences and divinity, I trow he 
would have been the singular and only spectacle of this 
our time of learning. ' '^ Not only was his college life * ' free 
from all excesses of play and riot," but then already he 
began those practices of prayer and mortification that 
marked his later career. "His father . . . wished that 
he should learn from his earliest years to be frugal and 
sober, and to love nothing but his studies and literature. 
For this reason he gave him the bare necessaries, and would 
not allow him a farthing to spend freely. This he carried 
out so strictly that he had not money to mend his worn-out 
shoes, without asking it from his father. More used often 
to relate this conduct of his father, and greatly extolled it. 
*It was thus' (he would say) *that I indulged in no vice or 
pleasure, and spent my time in no vain or hurtful amuse- 
ments ; I did not know what luxury meant, and never learnt 
to use money badly ; in a word. I loved and thought of noth- 
ing but my studies. ' ' '* 

After spending about two years at Canterbury College, 
Oxford, Thomas answered his father's summons and re- 
paired to London in order to prepare himself for the bar. 
Although the study of law was not to his liking, he applied 
himself very conscientiously and made such rapid progress 
that after an unusually short period of study, he was ap- 
pointed for three successive years lecturer on law at Furni- 

3. See Bridgett, Rev. T. E., Life and Writings of Blessed Thomas 
More, p. 9. Nicholas Harpsfield wrote in the time of Queen Mary, William 
Roper supplying him with material. 

4. Stapleton, quoted by Bridgett, p. 10. Stapleton's Tres ThomcB con- 
tains "by far the best Life of More ; it was published In 1588." 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 79 

val's Inn. His spare time, however, he devoted to his be- 
loved classics and to the Latin and Greek Fathers of the 
Church. We may add here that, although he ever after 
proved an ardent advocate of the classic revival so widely 
fostered in his day, he never sacrificed to pagan ideals his 
religious convictions, but remained to the end of his life a 
man of strict morals and a dutiful child of the Catholic 
Church. About this time he was called upon to deliver a 
series of historical lectures on St. Augustine's De Civitate 
Dei, in the church of St. Lawrence. Many learned men at- 
tended the lectures, so that the learning and eloquence of 
the youthful jurist soon became the topic of public comment. 
Meanwhile the time arrived for Thomas to choose a state 
of life. ''When he was about eighteen or twenty years 
old," his son-in-law tells us, "finding his body, by reason 
of his age, most rebellious, he sought diligently to tame his 
unbridled concupiscence by wonderful works of mortifica- 
tion. He used oftentimes to wear a sharp shirt next his 
skin, which he never left off wholly, — no, not even when he 
was Lord Chancellor of England ... He used also much 
fasting and watching, lying often either upon the bare 
ground or upon some bench, or laying some log under his 
head, allotting himself but four or five hours in a night 
at the most for his sleep. ... He lived for four years 
amongst the Carthusians, dwelling near the Charterhouse, 
frequenting daily their spiritual exercises, but without any 
vow. He had an earnest desire also to be a Franciscan friar, 
that he might serve God in a state of perfection."^ Eras- 
mus, his intimate friend and confident, likewise informs us 
that Thomas ''applied his whole mind to exercises of piety, 
looking to and pondering on the priesthood in vigils, fasts, 
and prayers, and similar austerities."® At last, however, 
on the advice of his father confessor, he abandoned the idea 

5. Cresacre More, quoted by Bridgett, p. 31. See also Baumstark : 
Thomas Morus, p. 22 ; Parkinson : Antiquities of the English Franciscans, 
p. 211 ; Du Boys : Catherine D'Aragon, p. 401 ; G. Roger Hudleston : Sir 
Thomas More in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIV, p. 690 ; Camm : Lives 
of the English Martyrs, Vol. I, p. 129. 

6. Bridgett, p. 23. 



80 FRANCISCANS AND 

of embracing the religious state and turned his attention to 
public affairs. 

In 1501, More was called to the bar, and three years later, 
he was elected a member of parliament. About this time, 
an event occurred that foreshadowed the future champion 
of truth and justice. King Henry VII had a bill intro- 
duced demanding of the people the enormous sum of 113,000 
pounds sterling as a dowry for Princess Margaret who was 
betrothed to James IV of Scotland. Regarding the appro- 
priation as unjust and unreasonable, the youthful parlia- 
mentarian publicly opposed it and effected that the house 
voted the much smaller sum of 30,000 pounds. Unable to 
mulct the '^ beardless boy," who as yet possessed no inde- 
pendent state, the enraged king vented his anger on the 
elder More, whom, by devising ''a causeless quarrel," he 
fined 100 pounds sterling and cast into the Tower till the 
sum was paid. Thomas grieved to see his father suffer on 
his account. But he was convinced of having done his duty, 
insomuch that, when Bishop Fox advised him to offer an 
apology to the king, he refused to do so, and he would prob- 
ably have gone over sea had not the king died soon after.'' 
The accession of Henry VIII in 1509, augured weU for 
the future welfare of the kingdom. He was already ac- 
quainted with Thomas More, having met him about ten 
years before in company with Erasmus of Rotterdam and 
received a poem from him. Since then, Henry had heard 
much of the promising barrister, and he cherished a high 
esteem for his virtue and learning. Accordingly, he sum- 
moned him to court and assured him of his royal favor and 
friendship. In 1510, More was appointed Under Sheriff 
of London. As Master of Requests he was almost con- 
stantly at court, and the youthful king, not only consulted 
him on political matters, but especially delighted in con- 
versing with him on scientific questions. ' ' Because he was 
of a pleasant disposition, it pleased the king and queen, 
after the council had supped, at the time of their supper, for 

7. Roper, p. 8. 



. THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 81 

their pleasure commonly to call for him to be merry with 
them."« 

In spite of all these royal blandishments, More preserved 
his independent character. In 1517, he had to defend the 
Pope's cause against the English realm regarding the for- 
feiture of a papal ship. He argued so well that the star 
chamber decided in favor of the Pope. Henry gladly re- 
turned the ship, and, far from being displeased with More, 
sought only to win his valuable service for himself. As 
royal speaker. More had frequently to make the Latin ad- 
dress; thus at the famous meeting of Henry VIII with 
Francis I of France in the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and 
again two years later, at the solemn entry of Emperor 
Charles V and Henry VIII in London. 

Though More enjoyed the esteem and confidence of Car- 
dinal Wolsey and in turn had great respect for the Car- 
dinal's eminent qualities, it happened that on one occasion 
he found it his duty publicly to oppose him. Wolsey was 
peeved and exclaimed, ''Are you not ashamed, Mr. More, 
being the last in place and dignity to dissent from so many 
noble and prudent men ? You show yourself a foolish coun- 
cillor." More calmly replied, ''Thanks be to God that his 
royal Highness has but one fool in his Council."^ On 
another occasion, the Cardinal, displeased with More's 
policy, said, "Would to God you had been at Rome, Master 
More, when I made you Speaker." "Your grace not of- 
fended," replied More, "so would I too, my Lord."^° 

In 1518, he was appointed Privy Councillor and Sub- 
treasurer of the Exchequer. Three years later, the king 
created him a knight. About this time, the heretical teach- 
ing of Martin Luther was causing much comment in Eng- 
land. More was foremost in denouncing the heresiarch and 
assisted the king in writing his famous Assertio Septem 
Sacrament or um. In 1525, he became chancellor of the 
Duchy of Lancaster. Repeatedly, since his elevation to the 
throne, Henry VIII employed him on important foreign 

8. Ibidem, p. 11. 9. Camm, p. 142. 10. Roper, p. 20. 



82 FRANCISCANS AND 

embassies. Finally, in 1529, he reached the height of his 
political distinction. During his absence at Cambray as 
English ambassador, Cardinal Wolsey had fallen into royal 
displeasure. Thomas More had just returned to England, 
when the king summoned him to court and handed him the 
official seal of the Lord Chancellor of the realm. 

Throughout his public career, both as statesman and as 
writer, More 's attitude toward the Church and her institu- 
tions was one of ready obedience and unswerving loyalty. 
Indeed, he lamented the grave abuses in the Church and 
joined his life-long friend Erasmus of Rotterdam in the 
general cry for reform; never, however, did he approve, 
much less share, his friend's cynical and rebellious spirit. 
Biased historians have sought to deduct More's religious 
views from his celebrated Utopia. That this satire is any- 
thing but an efflux of Luther's heretical teaching, is evi- 
dent already from the fact that it was written in Latin be- 
fore the German * ' reformer ' ' raised the standard of revolt 
against the Church. The author ' ' certainly had no wish, ' ' 
Bridgett remarks, ''that it should be read by the people 
of England in the days of Henry VIII."^^ Furthermore, 
we know how readily the learned and well-minded states- 
man would have burned the book had he foreseen that the 
enemies of the Church he loved and revered would employ 
it as a cudgel against her. In 1523, he wrote a spirited re- 
ply to Luther and constantly urged his friend Erasmus to 
exert his learning and influence in the same direction. 

It has been stated that Thomas More refrained from 
entering a religious order, because the corruption then sup- 
posed to prevail in the monasteries and friaries of England, 
filled him with disgust. In reply to this charge, Hutton, a 
Protestant historian writes: ''It is absurd to assert that 
More was disgusted with monastic corruption — ^that he 
'loathed monks as a disgrace to the Church.' He was 
throughout his life a warm friend of the religious orders, 
and a devoted admirer of the monastic ideal. He condemned 

11. Bridgett, p. 101. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 83 

the vices of individuals ; he said, as his great-grandson says, 
'that at that time religious men in England had somewhat 
degenerated from their ancient strictness and fervour of 
spirit ; ' but there is not the slightest sign that his decision 
to decline the monastic life was due in the smallest degree 
to a distrust of the system or a distaste for the theology of 
the Church/ '^2 How highly Thomas More esteemed the 
religious orders became clear in 1529 when he took Fish 
to task and by his Supplication of Souls in Purgatory 
sought to offset the evil influence of the latter 's Supplica- 
tion of Beggars, a scurrilous and slanderous diatribe on the 
life and habits of religious. We know, too, how, in 1533, 
he published his celebrated Apology in which he refuted the 
accusations made by Saint-German against the clergy in 
general and the religious in particular." 

The domestic and private life of Blessed Thomas More 
has never failed to win the applause and admiration of his 
biographers. In 1505, he married Jane Colt, the eldest 
daughter of a country gentleman of Essex. But the happy 
union was not to last long. In 1511, his wife died leaving 
him with four small children, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecily, 
and John. From an epitaph which he wrote twenty years 
later, we learn how fondly he cherished her memory. He 
had to provide for his children, however, and for this rea- 
son married Alice Middleton, a widow. Like himself she 
also was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis and 
proved a kind mother and a dutiful, discreet housewife/* 
After living twelve years in Crosby Place, the More family 
moved to their new home at Chelsea, a village on the out- 

12. See Bremond, Sir Thomas More, tr. by Harold Child, p. 17. 

13. See Dodd : Church History of England, Vol. I, p. 304 ; Gasquet : 
The Eve of the Reformation, chap. v. 

14. Bridget! (pp. 116 seq.) defends the character of Alice Middleton 
against such as declare that by her sharp tongue and shrewish temper she 
proved a termagant and greatly embittered the domestic life of More. "We 
have now seen," he concludes (p. 120), "all the evil that can be alleged 
against this lady, and it certainly does not justify our classing Blessed 
More amongst the ill-matched great men. To say that when his time of 
suffering came she did not rise to the height of his soul, is merely to class 
her with nearly all her contemporaries, including almost every abbess, 
abbot and bishop in the country." 



84 ^ FRANCISCANS AND 

skirts of London. Their spacious residence so famous in 
history stood in a beautiful garden that bordered on the 
Thames. Here More would resort wl^en free from State 
duties to find peace and comfort in the company of his 
loved ones. He took special interest and delight in the 
education of his children, for whom he engaged able and 
reliable tutors. Even when not at home, he superintended 
their studies. Once he wrote to Margaret, his favorite 
daughter : 

I beg you, Margaret, tell me about the progress you are making 
in your studies. For, I assure you that, rather than allow my chil- 
dren to be idle and slothful, I would make a sacrifice of wealth, 
and bid adieu to other cares and business, to attend to my chil- 
dren and family, amongst whom none is more dear to me than 
yourself, my beloved daughter. 

In a letter to William Gunnell their tutor he says that his 
children are ' ' to put virtue in the first place, learning in the 
second; and in their studies to esteem most whatever may 
teach them piety towards God, charity to all, and modesty 
and Christian humility in themselves. "^^ 

Erasmus, a frequent visitor at the Chelsea home, says 
that it was a school of Christianity, where piety and virtue 
were in full bloom. Daily the household would gather for 
evening devotion. All had to attend Mass on Sundays and 
holy days, and on the vigils of feasts, like Christmas and 
Easter, they had to be present at the midnight chanting of 
the office. At table, one of the girls read a passage from 
Holy Scripture concluded as is done in convents with : Tu 
autem, Domine, miserere nobis. . Then a commentary from 
one of the Holy Fathers would be read or, if some learned 
man happened to be there, a discussion was held on the text, 
till finally More himself would change the topic by some well 
chosen jest or story. 

Conformably with the Rule of the Third Order, More was 
greatly devoted to the poor and sick. ^ ' He used himself to go 
through the back lanes, and inquire into the state of poor 

15. See Bridgett, pp. 135, 129. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 85 

families ; and he would relieve their distress, not by scatter- 
ing a few small coins as is the general custom, but when he 
ascertained a real need, by two, three or four gold pieces. 
When his official position and duties prevented this personal 
attention, he would send some of his family to dispense his 
alms, especially to the sick and the aged. ... He very 
often invited to his table his poorer neighbors, receiving them 
(not condescendingly) but familiarly and joyously; he 
rarely invited the rich, and scarcely ever the nobility. In 
his parish of Chelsea he hired a house, in which he gathered 
many infirm, poor and old people, and maintained them at 
his own expense. ... He even went so far as to receive 
into his family and maintain a poor gentlewoman, a widow 
named Paula, who had expended all she had in an unsuccess- 
ful lawsuit. To widows and orphans, when he practiced 
at the bar, he even gave his services gratuitously. ' '^® 

We have seen how as student at Oxford he practiced 
prayer and penance. That he continued these pious prac- 
tices in later life, goes without saying. Next to his library, 
was a little chapel, where he spent many an hour in close 
communion with God. *'He used to rise at two o'clock in 
the morning," Stapleton informs us, ''and until seven to 
give himself to study and devotion. Every day before any 
other business — his very early studies alone excepted — he 
used to hear Mass. This duty he so strictly observed, that 
when summoned once by the king at a time when he was 
assisting at Mass, and sent for a second and third time, he 
would not go until the whole Mass was ended ; and to those 
who called him and urged him to go at once to the king and 
leave the Mass, he replied that he was paying his court to a 
greater and better Lord, and must first perform that duty. 
Henry was then pious and God-fearing, and did not take in 
bad part this piety of More. 

' ' He used daily to recite morning and evening prayers, 
to which he would add the seven penitential psalms and the 
litanies. He would often add to these the gradual psalms 

16. stapleton, quoted by Bridgett, p. 143. 



86 FRANCISCANS AND 

and the psalm Beati Immaculati. He also had a collection 
of private prayers, some in Latin, some in English, as may 
be seen in his English works. He had made up also, imitat- 
ing in this St. Jerome and others, a small psaltery consisting 
of selected psalms, which he often used. He would also make 
pilgrimages sometimes seven miles distant, on foot, which 
even common people scarcely do in England. "^^ Before 
entering on a new office, or undertaking a difficult business, 
he received Holy Communion. On one occasion, the Duke 
of Norfolk found him in church among the singers, clothed 
in a surplice. When the nobleman objected that the king 
would be displeased with such an act, the chancellor replied, 
"Nay, your grace may not think that the king, your master 
and mine, will with me for serving of God his master, be 
offended, or thereby account his office dishonored."^® On 
another occasion, the chancellor was at table with his family. 
When he removed his official gown, Anne Cresacre, his 
daughter-in-law, noticed the hair-shirt he was wearing and 
began to laugh. Later when Margaret told him of it, he felt 
very sorry, since he wished no one but her to know of it.^^ 
After his martyrdom, in 1535, his confessor wrote of him, 
* * This Thomas More was my ghostly child ; in his confession 
(he used) to be so pure, so clean. ... I never heard 
many such. ... He was devout in his divine service, 
and. . . . wore a great hair (shirt) next his skin. "^'^ 

It was with a heavy heart that Sir Thomas More yielded 
to the will of his monarch and, on October 25, 1529, took 
the required oath of office. He realized that Henry was no 
longer the high-minded and God-fearing prince of former 
years, and that he had conferred the chancellorship on him, 
in order to gain his support in the divorce from his lawful 
queen. In the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, More saw clearly 
what his own lot would be, when once the king's ''secret 
affair'' should involve the divine rights of the Papacy. 

17. Stapleton, quoted by Bridgett, p. 61 seq. 

18. Roper, p. 51. 

19. Ibidem, p. 48. 

20. See Bremond, p. 75. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 87 

About a year before, while walking with William Roper 
along the Thames at Chelsea, he suddenly turned to his son- 
in-law and said, "Now would to our Lord, son Roper, upon 
condition that three things were well established in Christen- 
dom, I were put in a sack and here presently cast into the 
Thames.'' 

''What great things be those, sir,'' inquired the other, 
*'that should move you so to wish?" 

* ' Wouldst thou know, son Roper, what they be ? " 
**Yea, marry, with a good will, sir, if it please you." 
' * In faith, son, ' ' replied More, ' ' they be these ; the first 
is, that whereas the most part of Christian princes be at 
mortal war, they were all at universal peace. The second, 
that where the Church of God is at this present sore afflicted 
with many errors and heresies, it were well settled in perfect 
uniformity of religion. The third, that where the matter 
of the king's marriage is now come in question, it were to 
the glory of God and quietness of all parties brought to a 
good conclusion. "2^ Evidently, he foresaw what a terrible 
calamity the last-mentioned affair would bring upon 
England. 

On February 11, 1531, the conflict began. Parliament 
wholly subservient to the king approved a royal proclama- 
tion by which the clergy were to acknowledge Henry ''pro- 
tector and only supreme head of the church and clergy of 
England, so far as the law of Christ allows. ' ' Although this 
new title was not clearly adverse to papal supremacy, it was 
at least ill-omened and dangerous. "There is no one," 
Chapuys wrote a few days later, "that does not blame this 
usurpation, except those who have promoted it. The chan- 
cellor is so mortified at it that he is anxious above all things 
to resign his office. ' '" Pressed by the king to reconsider his 
resignation, More remained in office and again set himself to 
studying the question of papal supremacy. Finding he 
could not reconcile his conscience with the king 's demand, he 
pursued a policy of silence, refusing to have anything to do 

21. Roper, p. 25. 22. Brldgett, p. 234. 



88 FRANCISCANS AND 

with the matter. Henry was satisfied, hoping in time to win 
over the chancellor. 

Thus a year passed by, when on May 13, the king de- 
manded that parliament suspend the payment of the Annates 
to the Pope and relax the English laws against heresy. 
Needless to say, More again used all his eloquence and influ- 
ence to crush the bills. Though the king tried to conceal his 
anger, the chancellor felt that the crisis had come. He 
would need much time now for prayer and penance, and 
therefore he again, on May 16, requested the king to relieve 
him of his office. This time Henry accepted his resignation, 
thanking him publicly for his long and faithful service. 
Indeed, by his justice, integrity, prudence, and learning, the 
noble statesman had gained the esteem of entire Europe. 
On May 22, Chapuys wrote : * ' The chancellor has resigned, 
seeing that affairs were going on badly and likely to be 
worse, and that if he retained his office he would be obliged 
to act against his conscience, or incur the king's displeasure, 
as he had already begun to do, for refusing to take his part 
against the clergy. His excuse was that his salary was too 
small, and that he was not equal to the work. Everyone is 
concerned, for there never was a better man in the office. ' '^^ 
Though sincerely devoted to his king and country, Blessed 
Thomas More never lost sight of God and heaven. In fact, 
he was true to his king, because he was true to God, and only 
when Henry succumbed to his lower passions, did his noble 
and saintly chancellor oppose his lawless policy and fear- 
lessly unfurl the standard of truth and justice. Shortly 
after his resignation. Sir Thomas Cromwell came to him at 
Chelsea with a message from the king. Having read the 
message, More said, ''Master Cromwell, you are now entered 
into the service of a most noble, wise, and liberal prince ; if 
you will follow my poor advice, you shall, in your counsel- 
giving to his grace, ever tell him what he ought to do, but 
never what he is able to do. So shall you show yourself a 
true faithful servant, and a right wise counsellor. For if a 

23. Ibidem, p. 240. 



THE PKOTESTANT REVOLUTION 89 

lion knew his own strength, hard were it for any man to riile 
him. ' '^* Cromwell 's subsequent career showed how utterly 
he ignored this wholesome advice. 

More's resignation meant poverty and distress for him- 
self and his family. Deprived of his professional income, 
he was forced to reduce his extensive household. Having 
found suitable places for his servants and having disposed 
of all luxuries and superfluities, he told his dear ones of his 
plans, cheerfully adding that, if later they should have noth- 
ing to live on, ' ' then may we yet, with bags and wallets, go 
a-begging together. ... at every man's door to sing 
Salve Regina, and so still keep company and be merry to- 
gether. "^^ Although the family remained at .Chelsea, 
More's poverty was so great that *'he was not able for the 
maintenance of himself and such as necessarily belonged 
unto him, sufficiently to find meat, drink, fuel, apparel, and 
such other necessary charges. ' '^^ 

During these days of deep distress and dark forebodings. 
More 's one thought was to arm himself by prayer and pen- 
ance for the final struggle. Meanwhile, he maintained a 
strict neutrality on the momentous questions then agitating 
the country. Urged on by Anne Boleyn, who hated the ex- 
chancellor because he had refused to be present at her cor- 
onation, the king and his wily creature Thomas Cromwell 
made repeated efforts to besmirch his good name. In 1533, 
they put his name on the bill of attainder drawn up against 
the Holy Maid of Kent and her adherents. But in a letter 
to Cromwell, More fully established his innocence.^^ In like 
manner, the two Franciscans, FF. Rich and Risby, with 
whom he had conferred on the character of the Maid, de- 
clared him innocent of any dealings with her, prejudicial 
to his majesty. But his enemies, especially Cromwell, were 
eager for his ruin, and there is little doubt that he would 
have been executed with the nun and her party, had not the 

24. Roper, p. 55. 

25. Ibidem, p. 53. 

26. Harpsfield, quoted by Camm, p. 188. 

27. For a copy of this letter see Bridgett, pp. 323 seq. 



90 FRANCISCANS AND 

Lords begged the king on their knees to take his name from 
the bill and to await a more "just" cause for vengeance. 

On March 30, 1534, the Act of Succession was passed.'"'* 
A commission was appointed by the king before which, More 
was informed, he would have to appear on April 13, at Lam- 
beth. He had previously written to Cromwell that his soul 
would be " in right great peril if he should follow the other 
side and deny the primacy to be provided by God. ' '^^ What- 
ever others might hold, to him it was now a matter of con- 
science, for which he was ready to suffer all. On the morn- 
ing of April 13, he attended holy Mass for the last time at 
Chelsea and received the sacraments. Then he bade fare- 
well to his grief-stricken family. His own heart, too, was 
steeped in sorrow. ' ' I thank our Lord the field is won, ' ' he 
said to this son-in-law, William Roper, when the boat struck 
off from shore and he cast a last look on his beautiful Chelsea 
home.^^ 

From a letter which he wrote to his daughter Margaret 
four days later, we learn how steadfastly he refused to take 
the oath which the commission presented to him, always 
maintaining that it would imperil his conscience. Accused 
of obstinacy and pride in placing his own private judgment 
over the decision of learned and God-fearing men who had 
already taken the oath. More replied, ' ' If there were no more 
than myself upon my side, and the whole parliament upon 
the other, I would be sore afraid to lean to mine own mind 
only against so many. But on the other side, if it so be that 
in some things, for which I refuse the oath, I have (as I 
think I have) upon my part as great a Council and a greater 
too, I am not then bounden to change my conscience and 

28. According to this Act, the children of Anne Boleyn were to suc- 
ceed to the throne. Any English subject who refused to take the oath 
obliging them to observe and maintain the Act in all its effects and con- 
tents was declared guilty of high treason. The preamble which the com- 
missioners included in the formula of the oath declared the king's marriage 
with Catherine of Aragon invalid and his recent marriage with Anne 
Boleyn valid. Now, just the contrary had been oflBcially and solemnly pro- 
claimed by the Holy See a week previous to the passing of the Act. The 
oath, therefore, necessarily implied a rejection of papal authority. This 
explains More's attitude. 

29. See Camm, p. 194. 30. Roper, p. 71. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 91 

conform it to the Council of one realm, against the general 
Council of Christendom. . . . Surely as to swear to the 
succession I see no peril. But I thought and think it reason 
that to mine own oath I look well myself, and be of counsel 
also in the fashion, and never intended to swear for a piece, 
and set my hand to the whole oath. Howbeit, as help me 
God, as touching the whole oath I never withdrew any man 
from it, nor never advised any to refuse it, nor never put, nor 
will put, any scruple in any man's head, but leave every man 
to his own conscience. And me thinketh in good faith, that 
so were it in good reason that every man should leave me to 
mine. "31 

After the hearing, More was placed with the Abbot of 
Westminster and held there for four days. Not knowing 
how to proceed against his former friend and favorite, the 
king consulted the Council. Cranmer proposed a compro- 
mise that would save More and at the same time make it 
appear as if he had taken the oath. But Henry would not 
hear of this ; he wanted More 's full submission in set terms 
and finally, egged on by Anne Boleyn, he decided that the 
ex-chancellor would have to choose between taking the com- 
plete oath and going to prison. Of course, the man of God 
chose the latter, and on April 17, he was thrown into the 
Tower. 

Though torn from those he loved, the valiant champion 
found the seclusion of prison quite to his liking. Convinced 
that he was suffering for a just and holy cause, he prepared 
himself for the day when he would be called upon to die in 
its defence. The prison was now his friary, where he could 
pray and study to his heart's content. Although in poor 

31. Ibidem, p. 111. Regarding More's refusal to take the oath of 
succession In the proposed form Bridgett says, "By comparing the various 
expressions of Sir Thomas together, it seems that he was himself deterred 
.... by several reasons, some of which were doctrinal, and held by the 
doctors of the Church ; but others were of a secret nature known to him- 
self, and which he had never communicated to another, and would not 
reveal even to his daughter. Whether these had reference to Anne Boleyn's 
aflSnity with Henry, or her precontract of marriage with Percy, or some 
other impediment still more secret, we cannot now discover, any more than 
we know the grounds on which Cranmer pronounced that Anne's marriage 
with Henry had been null from the beginning" (p. 382). 



92 FRANCISCANS AND 

health, he continued his wonted mortifications. He never 
put off the hair-shirt and took the discipline regularly. The 
Dialogue of Comfort Against Trihulation, which he wrote in 
prison for the instruction and edification of his grief-stricken 
family, breathes the spirit of one living in most intimate 
union with God. 

About a month after his imprisonment, he was visited by 
his favorite daughter Margaret. His enemies hoped that on 
her entreaties he would finally submit. In vain, liowever, 
did she plead and argue with him. ' ' I believe, Megg, ' ' he 
said, ' ' that they that have put me here ween that they have 
done me a high displeasure : but I assure thee on my faith, 
mine own good daughter, if it had not been for my wife and 
ye that be my children (whom I account the chief part of 
my charge) I would not have failed long ere this to have 
closed myself in as straight a room, and straighter too. But 
since I am come hither without mine own desert, I trust 
that God of His Goodness will discharge me of my care, 
and with His gracious help supply my lack among you. 
I find no cause, I thank God, Megg, to reckon myself 
in worse case than in mine own house, for me thinketh 
God maketh me a wanton, and setteth me on his lap and 
dandleth me."^^ 

On another occasion, Margaret told her father that she 
had a letter, which proved how his persistence was alienating 
his friends. ''What, Mistress Eve," More replied with a 
smile, *'hath my daughter Alington played the serpent with 
you, and with a letter set you to work to come and tempt 
your father again, and for the favor that you bear him, 
labor to make him swear against his conscience and send him 
to the devil? Daughter Margaret," he continued, ''we two 
have talked of this thing ofter than twice or thrice. And 
the same tale, in effect, that you tell me now therein, and the 
same fear too, have you twice told me before, and I have 
twice answered you too, that in this matter if it were possi- 
ble for me to do the thing that might content the king's 

32. Roper, p. 74. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 93 

grace, and God therewith not offended, then hath no man 
taken this oath already more gladly than I would do. ' '^^ 

What grieved him above all was the misery to which his 
family had been put on his account. This is evident from a 
letter which he wrote to Margaret about this time. 

If I had not been, my dearly beloved daughter, at a firm and 
fast point, I trust, in God's great mercy this good great while 
before, your lamentable letter had not a little abashed me, surely 
far above all other things, of which I hear divers times not a 

few terrible toward me A deadly grief unto me, and 

much more deadly than to hear of mine death (for the fear thereof, 
I thank our Lord, the fear of hell, the hope of heaven, and the 
passion of Christ daily more and more assuage), is, that I perceive 
my good son your husband, and you my good daughter, and my 
good wife, and mine other good children and innocent friends, in 

great displeasure and danger of great harm thereby Out 

of which (trouble) I beseech Him to bring me, when His will shall 
be, into His endless bliss of Heaven, and in the meanwhile, give 
me grace and you both, in all our agonies and troubles, devoutly 
to resort prostrate unto the remembrance of that bitter agony, 
which our Saviour suffered before His passion at the Mount. And 
if we diligently so do, I verily trust we shall find therein great 
comfort and consolation. And thus, my dear daughter, the blessed 
spirit of Christ, for His tender mercy, govern and guide you all, 
to His pleasure and to your weal and comfort, both body and soul.34 

Lady More was also permitted to visit him. Unable to 
understand her husband's attitude, she used all her house- 
hold eloquence to bring about his submission to the king. 

**What the good-yere. Master More," she said, ''I mar- 
vel that you that have been always hitherto taken for so wise 
a man will now so play the fool to lie here in this close, filthy 
prison, and be content thus to be shut up among mice and 
rats, when you might be abroad at your liberty, and with 

33. Ibidem, p. 119. In extenuation of Margaret's conduct Bridgett 
Bays, "The affectionate daughter had no thought of leading her father to 
do what was unworthy of him. When we see one so pure and wise as Mar- 
garet Roper thus deceived (she had taken the oath with the saving clause: 
so far as Christ's law allows), we can estimate the enormity of the scandal 
given to the laity by the prelates and clergy, of England, and we can also 
estimate the magnificence of More's loyalty to conscience, that he should 
be in no ways swayed by that example, thus pressed upon him by the 
mouth of his accomplished and beloved daughter" (p. 374). 

34. Roper, pp. 153 seq. 



94 FEANCISCANS AND 

the favour and good will both of the king and his council if 
you would but do as all the bishops and best learned of this 
realm have done. And seeing you have at Chelsea a right 
fair house, your library, your gallery, your garden, your 
orchard, and all other necessaries so handsome about' you, 
where you might in the company of me your wife, your 
children, and household, be merry. I muse what a God's 
name you mean here still thus fondly to tarry. * * 

**I pray thee, good Mistress Alice," put in More with a 
smile, * ' tell me one thing. ' * 

**What is that?" asked his wife. 

* ' Is not this house as nigh heaven as mine own ? * * 

^'Tyllevalle, Tyllevalle!" 

* * How say you, Mistress Alice, is it not so ? " 

^^Bone Deus, Bone Deus, man, will this gear never be 
left?" 

*'Well then, Mistress Alice, if it be so, it is very well. 
For I see no great cause why I should much joy in my gay 
house, or in any thing thereunto belonging, when if I should 
but seven years lie buried under the ground and then arise 
and come thither again, I should not fail to find some therein 
that would bid me get out of doors, and tell me it were none 
of mine. "What cause have I then to like such a house as 
would so soon forget his master ? ' '^^ 

As time wore on without any change in More's attitude 
toward the required oath, his imprisonment became more 
severe. In November, 1534, the lands he had received from 
the king ten years before were confiscated. This made his 
family almost penniless. Repeatedly they appealed to 
Henry for assistance; but the cruel king and his minister 
only gloated over the sorrow they were thereby causing their 
dauntless prisoner in the Tower. Finally, all visits were 
prohibited, and what pained him most, he was no longer per- 
mitted to attend holy Mass. Despite privation and suffer- 
ing, however, he was determined to persevere on the path 
of duty to the end. This is evident from a letter which he 

35. Ibidem, pp. 81 seq. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 95 

addressed to a priest early in January, 1535. This priest, 
whose name was Leader, having heard that More had re- 
lented and taken the oath, wrote to him apparently to con- 
gratulate him on his approaching deliverance from prison. 
"The tale that is reported," the prisoner replied in part, 
''albeit I cannot but thank you though ye would it were 
true, yet I thank God it is very vanity. And I trust in the 
great goodness of God that He shall never suffer it to be true. 
If my mind had been obstinate in deed, I would not let for 
any rebuke or worldly shame plainly to confess the truth ; 
for I propose not to depend upon the fame of the world. 
But I thank God that the thing I do is not for obstinacy, but 
for the salvation of my soul, because I cannot induce mine 
own mind otherwise to think than I do concerning the 
oath. ... If ever I should mishap to receive the oath 
(which I trust Our Lord shall never suffer me), ye may 
reckon sure that it were expressed and extorted by duress 
and hard handling. For all the goods of this world, I 
thank Our Lord I set not much more by than I do by dust. 
. . . I beseech Our Lord that all may prove as true faith- 
ful subjects to the king that have sworn, as I am in my mind 
sure they be which have refused to swear. ' '^® 

On April 30, 1535, we learn from his letter to Margaret, 
Cromwell with other members of the Council came to the 
Tower to exact from him a clear and definite statement re- 
garding the king's spiritual supremacy. Among other 
things they accused him of scandalizing the people by his 
obstinacy and threatened that the law would take its course 
were he to persist in his opposition to the king's demand. 
Declaring that he had never sought to influence any one in 
the matter of the oath, he continued, "I am the king's true 
faithful subject and daily bedesman, and pray for his high- 
ness and all the realm. I do nobody no harm, I say none 
harm, I think none harm, but wish everybody good. And if 
this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith I long 
not to live. And I am dying already, and have since I 

36. Bridgett, p. 379. 



96 FRANCISCANS AND 

came here, been divers times in the case that I thought to 
die within one hour. And I thank our Lord that I was 
never sorry for it, but rather sorry when I saw the pang past. 
And therefore my poor body is at the king's pleasure. 
Would God my death might do him good. ' '^^ A few weeks 
later the king 's men repeated their visit. When More again 
shrewdly evaded an open declaration concerning royal 
supremacy, his enemies accused him of cowardice, alleging 
that for fear of death he dared not speak his mind freely. 
To this the holy man made the memorable reply, '-'I have 
not been a man of such holy living that I might be bold to 
offer myself to death, lest God, for my presumption, might 
suffer me to fall ; and, therefore, I put not myself forward, 
but draw back. Howbeit, if God draw me to it Himself, 
then trust I in His great mercy that He shall not fail to 
give me grace and strength. "^^ 

The glorious martyrdom of the Carthusians on June 19, 
and that of Blessed John Fisher, three days later, made it 
clear to More that also his day of triumph was fast approach- 
ing. Despoiled of all his books and writing material and 
shut up in solitary confinement, he devoted his time exclu- 
sively to prayer and mortification. But his heart was as 
staunch and as cheerful as ever. Asked one day by the 
jailer why he always kept the blind down and sat in utter 
darkness, he replied with a smile of sweet composure, * ' What 
should I do? When the wares are taken away, should not 
the shop be closed? "3^ 

On July 1, the servant of God was taken from his cell 
and conducted to Westminster for trial. ''To make the 
greater impression on the people, ' ' writes Lingard, ' * per- 
haps to add to his shame and suffering, More was led on foot, 
in a coarse woolen gown, through the most frequented 
streets, from the Tower to Westminster Hall. The color 
of his hair, which had lately become gray, his face, which, 
though cheerful, was pale and emaciated, and the staff, with 

37. Roper, p. 165. 38. Ibidem, p. 173. 

39. Sander, De Origine ac Progressu Schisnuitia Anglicani, first edition 
(1585). p. 81; Rishton edition (1690), p. 184. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 97 

which he supported his feeble steps, announced the rigor 
and duration of his confinement. "*° His appearance in 
court and his subsequent reply after the indictment had been 
read made a deep impression on all present. Referring to 
the seditious utterances which Richard Rich had falsely ac- 
cused him of having made during a conversation in the 
Tower, the martyr said : 

* ' If I were a man, my lords, that did not regard an oath, 
I need not stand in this place at this time as an accused per- 
son. And if this oath of yours, Mr. Rich, be true, then I 
pray that I may never see the face of God, which I would 
not say were it otherwise to win the whole world. ' ' Then, 
having repeated the conversation as it had really taken 
place, he continued : * ' In good faith, Mr. Rich, I am sorrier 
for your perjury than for my own peril ; but neither I, nor 
any other man else, to my knowledge, ever took you to be a 
man of such credit, as that, in any matter of importance, I, 
or any other, would, at any time, vouchsafe to communicate 
with you. And I, as you know, of no small while, have been 
acquainted with you and your conversation, who have known 
you from your youth hitherto, for we long dwelled together 
in one parish. I am sorry you compel me so to say, that 
you were esteemed very light of tongue, a great dicer, and 
of no commendable fame. And so in your house at the 
Temple, where hath been your chief bringing up, were you 
likewise accounted. 

**Can it, therefor-e, seem likely to your honorable lord- 
ships that I would, in so weighty a cause, so unadvisedly 
overshoot myself as to trust Mr. Rich, a man of me always 
reputed of little troth, so far above my soverign lord the 
king or any of his noble councillors, that I would utter unto 
him the secrets of my conscience touching the king's 
supremacy, the special point at my hands so long sought 
for — a thing I never did, nor never would, after the statute 
made thereof, reveal unto the King's highness himself? 

40. Lingard, History of England (New York, 1879), Vol. V, p. 21. 



98 FRANCISCANS AND 

Can this, in your judgment, my lords, seem likely to be 
true?"^^ 

When the martyr had finished speaking, the jurymen 
were asked to give their verdict. After a quarter of an 
hour 's private consultation they returned to the court room 
and declared the prisoner guilty of treason, whereupon the 
chancellor sentenced him to death by hanging, drawing, and 
quartering. On hearing his sentence, the holy man rose 
quietly from his seat. The time had now come for him to 
make a public profession of faith. 

** Since I am condemned and God knows how," he said, 
* ' I wish to speak freely of your statute, for the discharge of 
my conscience. For the seven years that I have studied the 
matter, I have not read in any approved doctor of the Church 
that a temporal lord could or ought to be head of the spirit- 
uality." 

' * What, More, ' ' broke in the chancellor, * * you wish to be 
considered wiser and of better conscience than all the bishops 
and nobles of the realm ? ' ' 

*'My lord," replied the martyr calmly, *'for one bishop 
of your opinion I have a hundred saints of mine ; and for 
one parliament of yours, and God knows of what kind, I 
have all the General Councils for 1,000 years ; and for one 
kingdom I have France and all the kingdoms of Christen- 
dom." 

At this, the Duke of Norfolk suggested that now the 
malice of the prisoner was clear. But More was nothing 
perturbed. 

''What I say," he explained, **is necessary for the dis- 
charge of my conscience and satisfaction of my soul, and to 
this I call God to witness, the sole searcher of human hearts. 
I said further, that your statute is ill made, because you have 
sworn never to do anything against the Church, which, 
through all Christendom, is one and undivided, and you 
have no authority, without the common consent of all Chris- 
tians, to make a law or Act of Parliament or Council against 

41. Roper, pp. 86 seq. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 99 

the union of Christendom. I know well that the reason why 
you have condemned me is because I have never been willing 
to consent to the king 's second marriage ; but I hope, in the 
Divine goodness and mercy, that, as St. Paul and St. 
Stephen, whom he persecuted, are now friends in Paradise, 
so we, though differing in this world, shall be united in per- 
fect charity in the other. I pray God to protect the king, 
and give him good counsel. ' '^^ 

He was then brought back to prison. When Margaret 
waiting with other members of the family at the Tower 
Wharf saw her condemned father, she ran up to him, fell 
about his neck and kissed him. With mingled joy and sor- 
row he comforted and blessed her. But not satisfied, his 
affectionate daughter ran to him a second time; ''and at 
last, with a full and heavy heart, was fain to depart from 
him : the beholding whereof was to many of them that were 
present thereat so lamentable, that it made them for very 
sorrow and weep and mourn. ' '*^ Later, when the martyr saw 
that Sir William Kingston, constable of the Tower, was 
weeping, he said, * ' Good Master Kingston, trouble not your- 
self, but be of good cheer ; for I will pray for you, and my 
good lady your wife, that we may meet in heaven together, 
where we shall be merry for ever and ever. ' '** 

No date had been fixed for his execution. But the 
martyr knew that the end was near and spent the remaining 
few days in closest union with God. To strengthen him- 
self for the deadly conflict, he scourged his innocent flesh 
most severely. It is also said that he wrapped himself in a 
white sheet and like a corpse prepared for burial paced his 
gloomy cell meditating on death and eternity. On July 5, 
the day before his martyrdom, he sent his hair-shirt to 
Margaret together with a letter which was written with a 
charred stick and read in part : 

Our Lord bless you, good daughter, and your good husband, and 
your little boy, and all yours, and all my children, and all my god- 
children and all our friends I cumber you, good Margaret, 

42. Bridgett, p. 422. 43. Roper, p. 97. 44. Ibidem, p. 96. 



100 



FRANCISCANS AND 







to 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 101 

much, but I would be sorry if it should be any longer than to- 
morrow, for it is St. Thomas' Eve, and the Utas of St. Peter; and, 
therefore, to-morrow long I to go to God. It were a day very 
meet and convenient for me. I never liked your manner toward me 
better than when you kissed me last; for I love when daughterly 
love and dear charity hath no leisure to look to worldly courtesy. 
Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and 
all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven.45 

It is related on the authority of Cresacre More that when 
the martyr was told that the king had commuted his punish- 
ment to decapitation, he replied, * ' God forbid the king should 
use any more such mercy unto any of my friends, and God 
bless all my posterity from such pardons. ' '*® July 6, as he 
had desired, was the day set for his execution. Early that 
morning. Sir Thomas Pope, a cherished friend of his, came 
and told him that by the king 's orders he was to die before 
nine o 'clock. ' ' Master Pope, ' ' was his cheerful reply, ' ' for 
your good tidings I heartily thank you. I have always 
been much bounden to the king's highness for the benefits 
and honours that he had still from time to time most bounti- 
fully heaped upon me; and yet more bounden am I to his 
grace for putting me into this place, where I have had con- 
venient time and space to have remembrance of my end. 
And so help me God, most of all, Master Pope, am I bounden 
to his highness that it pleaseth him so shortly to rid me out 
of the miseries of this wretched world, and therefore will I 
not fail earnestly to pray for his grace, botli here, and also 
in the world to come. ' ' When he noticed that his old friend 
was weeping, the martyr sought to comfort him. ''Quiet 
yourself, good Master Pope, ' ' he said, ' ' and be not discom- 
forted, for I trust that we shall once in heaven see each other 
full merrily, where we shall be sure to live and love together, 
in joyful bliss eternally."*^ 

Bodily suffering and mental anguish had not robbed him 
of his characteristic cheerfulness. The prospect of heavenly 
bliss sustained him amid the gloom of prison life and even 

45. Ibidem, p. 175. 47. Roper, pp. 99 seq. 

46. Bridgett, p. 431, footnote. 



102 FRANCISCANS AND 

now made his heart leap for joy when Kingston, the lieu- 
tenant of the Tower, arrived and told him that his hour had 
come. Gladly, almost merrily, he followed the guards to 
Tower Hill, the place of execution. Noticing that the scaf- 
fold shook when he placed his foot on the ladder, he turned 
to Kingston and said with a smile, "I pray you, Master 
Lieutenant, see me safely up, and for my coming down let 
me shift for myself." "With this he mounted the scaffold, 
and turning to the people who had assembled in great num- 
bers, he briefly asked them "to pray for him and to bear 
witness with him, that he should now suffer death in and 
for the faith of the Holy Catholic Church. ' ' With profound 
devotion he recited the psalm Miserere. As was customary, 
the executioner begged his forgiveness; whereupon the 
martyr kissed him tenderly and said, ' ' Pluck up thy spirits, 
man, and be not afraid to do thine office : my neck is very 
short, take heed, therefore, thou strike not awry, for saving 
of thine honesty. ' '*^ Then having blindfolded his eyes with 
a cloth he had brought with him, he knelt down at the block. 
The executioner had already raised the ax, when the holy 
man, as Cresacre relates, signed for a moment's delay, and 
put aside his beard, saying that it had not committed trea- 
son.*^ Then he once more laid his head on the block, and 
while his lips moved in prayer, the fatal blow was dealt that 
won for him the crown of martyrdom. 

King Henry was playing at backgammon with Anne 
Boleyn when a messenger came and informed him that the 
execution had taken place. Remorse seems to have filled 
his black soul ; for turning to his worthless paramour, he said 
bitterly, ' ' Thou art the cause of this man 's death. ' '^° Whole 
Europe stood aghast on learning that the former Chancellor 
of England had suffered death at the block. Roper relates 
that when Emperor Charles V heard of it, he said to the 
English ambassador, ' ' Had we been master of such a servant, 

48. Ibidem, p. 101. 

49. Bridgett, p. 435, footnote. 

50. Camm, p. 237 ; also Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, 
Vol. II, p. 670. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 103 

of whose doings ourselves have had these many years no 
small experience, we would rather have lost the best city of 
our dominions, than have lost such a worthy councillor. ' '^^ 

Thus lived and died the great Tertiary Chancellor of 
England, ''loyal to his sovereign to the last, yet giving his 
life for the higher loyalty he owed to the Vicar of Christ, 
and bearing himself in every relation of life with the free- 
hearted joy fulness of one for whom no earthly pleasures, 
cares, or trials could cloud over the blue horizon beyond 
which lay the vision of God. ' ' 

Harpsfield informs us that the martyr's head was im- 
paled on London Bridge. Here, according to Stapleton, it 
remained "for a month, when Margaret Roper bribed the 
man whose business it was to throw it into the river to give 
it to her. ' ' With the consent of the Council, she preserved 
it in a leaden vessel. What became of the precious relic 
after her death in 1544, is not known. As to the martyr's 
body, we are told that by order of the governor it was 
given to Margaret who with the assistance of her former 
maid, Dorothy Harris, and her adopted sister, Margaret 
Clements, buried it in the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula 
in the Tower. ' ' The spot pointed out at present, ' ' we learn 
from Bridgett, ''is near the entrance to the small bell-tower; 
and if that was the resting-place of the holy ashes, they will 
not have been removed to the vaults, as was the case with 
those in the nave, when the church was repaired in 1876."^^ 
By the decree of Pope Leo XIII, dated December 29, 1886, 
the illustrious Tertiary martyr was enrolled among the 
Blessed. 

51. Roper, p. 102. 

52. Bridgett, pp. 435 seq. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CATHERINE OF ARAGON, FRANCISCAN TERTIARY 

The Spanish princess — Departure for England — Sudden 
death of Prince Arthur, her consort — She marries his 
brother Henry — Eighteen years of marital happiness — 
The king's infidelity — The divorce question — Catherine 
and the papal commission — Before the ecclesiastical 
court at Blackfriars — The queen's appeal to Rome ad- 
mitted — Henry retaliates — Catherine insulted and dis- 
owned — Her secluded life at the More — At Buckden — 
At Kimholton Castle — Bodily and mental suffering — 
Royal supremacy — Within sight of the scaffold — Her 
last illness and violent death — An estimate of her 
character. 

The history of the English Franciscans during the first 
years of the religious persecution would be incomplete with- 
out a special chapter on Queen Catherine. Her private and 
public life bears a striking resemblance to that of Bl. 
Thomas More. Like him she was a Tertiary of St. Francis ^ 
and by unfeigned loyalty to her God and to her king made 
manifest how deeply the spirit of St. Francis was rooted in 
her noble and beautiful soul. 

1. Dr. Nicolas Sander is our main authority on this question. He 
lived from 1530 to 1581. His mucti-quoted work, De Origine ac Progressu 
Schismatis Anglicani, was published for the first time four years after his 
death. "It is now acknowledged to be an excellent popular account of 
the period from the Catholic point of view," says J. P. Polen in The 
Catholic Enclyclopedia (Vol. XIII, p. 436). Sander himself affirms in the 
preface of his work that he recounts the history of the schism "conform- 
ably with what we have gathered from public records or have drawn from 
both the writings and the sayings of very creditable men, or at least have 
known or seen ourselves." On page 5, we read : "Under the royal robe, 
she (Catherine) wore the habit of Blessed Francis, in whose third order 
she had enrolled herself." Rishton did not question this statement when 
he reedited Sander's work, in 1690. It is likewise attested by Davenport, 
Wadding, Parkinson, Leon, Strickland, Du Boys, Gu6rin, Magliano, Hope, 
Stone, Heimbucher, and others. 

104 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 105 

Queen Catherine of Aragon was the youngest daughter 
of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Born at 
Aleala de Henares, Spain, on December 15, 1484, she passed 
her infancy and early childhood in the Christian camp be- 
fore the walls of Granada. In 1492, this last Moorish strong- 
hold in Spain surrendered and henceforth became the home 




Queen Catherine of Aragon 

of Catherine. Her early education was entrusted to the 
Franciscans,^ who enjoyed the favor and esteem of the 
Catholic Sovereigns of Spain. Under the vigilant care of 
her excellent mother, the gifted princess acquired those 
noble qualities of heart and mind which were one day to 
signalize her career as queen of England. 

At the tender age of twelve years, Catherine was prom- 

2. Gu6rin : Le Palmier Scraphique, Vol. I, p. 124. 



106 FRANCISCANS AND 

ised in marriage to Prince Arthur, the elder son of Henry 
VII and heir apparent to the English throne. Four years 
later, on September 26, she bade farewell to her cherished 
home and kindred and attended by a splendid retinue em- 
barked for England. After a voyage of six days, she landed 
at Plymouth. Elaborate festivities marked her journey to 
London, where, on November 14, in St. Paul's Cathedral, 
the archbishop of Canterbury, attended by nineteen bishops 
and mitered abbots, performed the solemn marriage cere- 
monies.^ Little did Arthur and Catherine, amid the re- 
joicings of whole England, imagine how soon grim death 
would shatter their bright prospects for a long and happy 
union. But God directs the destinies of men; they were 
never to live together as husband and wife. Shortly after 
the wedding. Prince Arthur fell dangerously ill, probably 
of the plague,* and the next spring, on April 2, he breathed 
his last.^ 

Catherine broken in spirit answered the summons of 
Queen Elizabeth, her mother-in-law, and for the present 
resided in the country palace of Croydon. Her parents 
wished her to return to Spain. The English king, however, 
anxious to secure the remaining half of her marriage por- 
tion which consisted of 200,000 ducats, proposed that she 
marry his younger son Henry. Indeed, after the death of 
Queen Elizabeth, he himself wished to marry Catherine. 
But Queen Isabella of Spain would not hear of it, and the 
English King did not urge the matter.^ Finally, he suc- 
ceeded in gaining the consent of the Spanish sovereigns in 
behalf of his son, and in 1504, Pope Julius II granted the 
necessary dispensation. Though Catherine had not the least 
misgivings as to the legality of a union with Prince Henry, 
she was averse to a second marriage, especially with a prince 

3. It Is worthy of note that on this auspicious day Catherine was 
escorted from the bishop's palace to the cathedral by the Duke of York, 
who in after years, as Henry VIII, so cruelly embittered her life. 

4. See Strickland : Lives of the Queens of England, Vol. II, p. 485. 

5. From the testament of Arthur in which he bequeathed nothing to 
Catherine, historians rightly infer that he never regarded her as actually 
his wife. See Strickland, p. 486. 

6. Du Boys : Catherine D'Aragon, p. 30. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 107 

who was five years her junior. She desired to return to her 
native land and to join the Order of Poor Clares in the 
convent of Toledo.^ Hence it was only to please her parents 
that she made the sacrifice, and on June 25, 1504, consented 
to her betrothal to Henry. A few months later. Queen 
Isabella died. ' ' Thus unhappily deprived of her admirable 
mother, she was left a passive victim at the disposal of the 
two wily diplomatists, her father King Ferdinand and 
Henry VII."® The English king subjected her to every 
privation and indignity to extort from her father the re- 
maining share of her dowry, while Ferdinand, greatly im- 
poverished by the death of Queen Isabella, could not be in- 
duced to pay it. Then, actuated by rather unseemly mo- 
tives,'' Henry VII, about 1506, not only debarred his son 
from meeting his future consort, but even forced him to 
sign a written protest against his previous betrothal to her. 
All this combined to make Catherine's situation very em- 
barrassing. At last a change came. Henry VII died on 
April 22, 1509, and he was succeeded by his son, Henry 
VIII. 

Ever since the death of his brother Arthur, young 
Henry had been witness of Catherine's constancy and pa- 
tience in suffering. He sympathized with the wronged 
princess and in time became sincerely attached to her. 
Catherine, too, had gradually learned to esteem the English 
prince whose accession to the throne was hailed as the be- 
ginning of an era of national peace and prosperity. A feel- 
ing of joy and satisfaction thrilled the English nation, 
when on June 3, 1509, Henry and Catherine were solemnly 
married at Greenwich,'*' and when on June 24, the royal 
pair were crowned at Westminster.'^ No one, least of all 
Catherine, then thought that her crown of gold would 
eventually become a crown of thorns. 



7. Gu6rln, p. 145. 8. Strickland, p. 488. 9. See Strickland, p. 497. 

10. Probably In the Franciscan church adjoining the royal palace. 

11. It Is Important to note that on this occasion Catherine appeared 
with flowing hair and in a white robe, which, according to custom, was 
permitted only to a virgin. See Strickland, p. 505 ; also Du Boys, p. 88. 



108 FRANCISCANS AND 

The first years of their union proved a period of mutual 
love and edification, coupled with true zeal for the religious 
and political welfare of the kingdom. They held court 
chiefly in the palace at Greenwich, since Henry had a pre- 
dilection for this place/^ How highly the king esteemed 
his worthy spouse, we see from his letter to Ferdinand of 
Aragon. ''Her eminent virtues," he wrote, ''daily shine 
forth, blossom, and increase so much, that if we still were 
free, her we would choose for our wife before all others." 
Nor was this mere policy on his part. Catherine, indeed, 
became his adviser and confidante in all affairs of State. 
In 1513, during his military sojourn in Flanders, he ap- 
pointed her regent, granting her powers such as no English 
queen had ever held. It was in great part due to her that 
in the same year the English army vanquished the invading 
Scots at Flodden Field. Catherine, indeed, was wholly de- 
voted to Henry and to the interests of the English realm. 
She rejoiced at the news of Henry's victory over the French 
at Guinegate, and after making a pilgrimage to the Lady- 
shrine at Walsingham, hastened to Richmond to welcome 
him home.^^ 

In his treatise on Christian matrimony, Erasmus cites 
Catherine as a model wife and mother. "What house is 
there," he asks incidentally, "among the subjects to their 
realm, that can offer an example of such united wedlock? 
Where can a wife be found better matched with the best 
of husbands. ' '^* In her private life, the queen was a mirror 
of holiness. She was wont to rise at midnight and to pray 
in the church while the friars chanted Matins and Lauds. 
At five in the morning, she dressed hurriedly, frequently 
averring the only time she wasted was that spent in dress- 
ing. Beneath her royal robes, she wore the Tertiary habit 
of St. Francis. Every Friday and Saturday she fasted; 
while on the vigils of the feasts of the Blessed Virgin she 



12. Tlmbs : Abbeys . ... of England and Wales, Vol. I, p. 122. 

13. Hope : First Divorce of Henry VIII, pp. 24 seq. 

14. Strickland, pp. 518, 531. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 109 

contented herself with bread and water. Twice a week, on 
Wednesday and Friday, she went to Confession and re- 
ceived Holy Communion every Sunday. She recited the 
office of the Blessed Virgin daily, and spent six hours every 
morning in church. At noon she would read for the space of 
two hours the lives of the Saints to her servants and attend- 
ants. Then she returned to church and remained there till 
almost supper, of which she partook very sparingly. She 
prayed on her knees, never using the comfort of a cushion. 
*'Who will wonder, that so saintly a woman had to be tried 
in some greater fire of tribulation, in order that the odor 
of her virtues might be more readily diffused over the entire 
Christian world. "^^ 

Needless to say, the pious queen, as a Tertiary of St. 
Francis, held the Franciscan friars in greatest esteem. 
Having spent her childhood under the wholesome influence 
of their brethren in Spain, she was happy now to find them 
equally zealous and popular in England. Their friary at 
Greenwich adjoined the royal palace, which naturally en- 
tailed her becoming more intimately acquainted with them. 
Before her marriage with Henry, she requested her father 
to send her a Franciscan from Spain, since she could not 
confess in English.^^ Later, however, when she had suffi- 
ciently mastered the language, Bl. John Forest became her 
confessor and adviser ; and we have every reason to believe 
that her subsequent conduct must in great part be ascribed 
to the advice given her by the saintly friar.^'' 

During the first years of his reign, as we have seen, 
Henry zealously shared in the pious practices of his queen. 
But alas! clouds of adversity gradually began to darken 
their mutual love and happiness. Of the five children with 
which their marriage had been blessed, all had died except 
Mary the youngest, who subsequently, in 1553, ascended the 

15. This fair picture of Catherine's personal sanctity is taken from 
Sander, p. 5. 

16. Striclcland, p. 495, quoting a fragmentary letter of Catherine to 
her father. King Ferdinand, of Aragon. 

17. This partly accounts for Henry's subsequent hatred of the Fran- 
ciscans. See Stone : Faithful Unto Death, p. 6. 



110 FRANCISCANS AND 

throne of England. These premature deaths together with 
the gay and loose life at court gradually estranged the heart 
of Henry. Catherine knew that he was no longer a true 
and faithful husband; she felt that her piety bored him, 
that her very presence was becoming irksome to him. Thus 
matters stood when, early in 1527, to her utter dismay she 
learned that Wolsey had summoned Henry to his legatine 
court to examine the scruples of conscience he alleged re- 
garding his marriage. ^^ The queen had only recently re- 
covered from a severe illness, and the news of Henry's 
hypocritical scheming against her harassed her innermost 
soul. Finally, on June 22, 1527, the king himself laid the 
affair before Catherine. ^^ The helpless queen was now con- 
vinced of the hypocrisy of her faithless consort and burst 
into tears when he told her to leave court, since he could no 
longer share her company. She argued with him and de- 
clared she would never live apart from him. Even now she 
treated Anne Boleyn with sweet forbearance, although she 
knew her to be the king's favorite and constant attendant. 
Only once, at a game of cards, did she tenderly reproach 
her rival, saying, ''My lady Anne, you have the good hap 
ever to stop at a king ; but you are like others, you will have 
all or none."^*^ 

In May and June, 1528, a plague, called the sweating 
sickness, carried away a number of courtiers. Anne Boleyn 
was the first to contract the disease. Henry stricken with 
fear and remorse returned to Catherine and ''instead of 
attending to his 'secret matter,' joined the queen in her 
devotional exercises, confessing himself every day and re- 
ceiving the Communion every Sunday and festival. "^^ But 
no sooner had the plague abated than he recalled his favorite 

18. Cardinal Wolsey is often accused of having first raised these doubts 
in Henry's mind. Dodd, in his Church History of England, Vol. I, pp. 72 
seq., carefully examines the various theories held by historians on this 
question and then concludes with Cavendish, who was Wolsey's secretary, 
that the king's passion for Anne Boleyn "not only gave the first motion to, 
but carried on the whole affair." 

19. Hope, p. 50 : also Stone : Mary the First, Queen, of England, p. 38. 

20. Strickland, p. 538. 

21. Lingard : History o/ England, Vol. IV, p. 250. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 111 

to court. The following October, Campeggio, the papal 
legate, arrived in England. The queen's ascetic habits 
made Henry hope that on the legate 's suggestion she would 
readily enter the convent. But, in an interview Catherine 
informed Campeggio that as queen and mother she could 
never consent to such a thing, and boldly rebuked Wolsey 
for confirming the king in his shameless perfidy. ''Of 
malice," she declared, ''have you kindled this fire, especially 
for the great grudge you bear to my nephew the emperor, 
whom you hate worse than a scorpion, because he would not 
gratif}^ your ambition, by making you pope by force; and 
therefore have you said, more than once, you would trouble 
him and his friends — and you have kept him true promise, 
for of all his wars and vexations, he may only thank you. 
As for me, his poor aunt and kinswoman, what trouble you 
put me to by this new-found doubt God knoweth, to whom 
I commit my cause. "^^ 

On Friday, June 18, 1529, Wolsey and Campeggio 
opened their legatine court in the palace at Blackfriars. 
The king was present by proxy. Catherine, attended by 
her counsel of four bishops ^^ and a great train of ladies, 
appeared in person and with due respect to the presiding 
Cardinals solemnly appealed to the Pope for a hearing, 
alleging that in England, where there was no one to take 
up her cause, the court would necessarily decide against 
her.2* In reply, she was told to appear again on the fol- 
lowing Monday ; in the meantime, the Cardinals would con- 
sider the justice of her appeal. 

Accordingly, on June 21, the king and queen appeared 
in person. When Henry 's name was called, he arose and to 

22. Strickland, p. 542. Du Boys, p. 264, cites a letter of Mendoza, the 
Spanish ambassador, to the emperor, dated November 18, 1528. From this 
letter we learn how Wolsey browbeat Campeggio and in a threatening tone 
told him to be on his guard that what lately happened in Germany 
through the severity of a certain Cardinal might not also take place in 
England through another Cardinal. See also Hope, pp. 52-57. 

23. One of their number was a Franciscan, Fr. Henry Standish, bishop 
of Asaph. See Parkinson : Antiquities of the English Franoiscatis, p. 237. 

24. For the original account of these proceedings, together with a 
copy of the queen's appeal, see Pocock : Records of the Reformation, Vol. I, 
pp. 216-222. 



112 FRANCISCANS AND 

delude the judges and the assembled people loudly extolled 
the virtues of his royal consort, at the same time professing 
his reluctance to part from her were it not for the scruples 
that panged his *' tender" conscience. Disgusted at this 
shameless hypocrisy, Catherine asked how, if he now spoke 
the truth, he could have been silent these twenty years. 
When Henry replied that the great love he always had and 
still retained for her, had till now sealed his lips, the queen 
became indignant and in trembling accents reiterated her 
appeal to Rome. But the judges declared that her appeal 
was unjust and could not be accepted. On hearing this, 
Catherine went over to where the king sat and falling on 
her knees before him, made a heroic effort to touch his heart. 
* ' Sir, ' ' she said, ' ' I beseech you, for all the loves there hath 
been between us, and for the love of God, let me have some 
right and justice. Take of me some pity and compassion, 
for I am a poor stranger, born out of your dominions; I 
have here no unprejudiced counsellor, and I flee to you as 
to the head of justice within your realm. Alas! alas! 
wherein have I offended you ? I take God and all the world 
to witness that I have been to you a true, humble, and 
obedient wife, even conformable to your will and pleasure. 
I have been pleased and contented with all things wherein 
you had delight and dalliance ; I loved all those you loved, 
only for your sake, whether they were my friends or mine 
enemies. This twenty years have I been your true wife, 
and by me ye have had divers children, although it hath 
pleased God to call them out of the world, which has been no 
fault of mine. I put it to your conscience whether I came 
not to you as a maid? If you have since found any dis- 
honor in my conduct, then I am content to depart, albeit to 
my great shame and disparagement ; but if none there be, 
then I beseech you, thus lowlily, to let me remain in my 
proper state. The king your father was accounted in his 
day a second Solomon for wisdom ; and my father, Ferdi- 
nand, was esteemed one of the wisest kings that had ever 
reigned in Spain ; both, indeed, were excellent princes, full 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 113 

of wisdom and royal behavior. Also, as me-seemeth, they 
had in their days as learned and judicious counsellors as are 
at present in this realm, who then thought our marriage 
good and lawful; therefore it is a wonder to me to hear 
what new inventions are brought up against me, who never 
meant aught but honestly. Ye cause me to stand to the 
judgment of this new court, wherein ye do me much wrong 
if ye intend any kind of cruelty; for ye may condemn me 
for lack of sufficient answer, since your subjects cannot be 
impartial counsellors for me, as they dare not, for fear of 
you, disobey your will. Therefore most humbly do I require 
you, in the way of charity and for the love of God, who is 
the just Judge of all, to spare me the sentence of this new 
court until I be advertised what way my friends in Spain 
may advise me to take ; and if ye will not extend to me this 
favor, your pleasure be fulfilled, and to God I commit my 
cause." Then she arose bathed in tears and bowing to the 
king left the court. When told that the crier at the king's 
bidding was calling her back, she said, ''I hear it well 
enough ; but on — on, go you on, for this is no court wherein 
I can have justice. Proceed, therefore. ' '^^ 

Her touching appeal had made a deep impression on all 
present. This the king noticed and with seeming emotion 
declared, ''Forasmuch as the queen is gone I will in her 
absence declare unto you all, my lords, she hath been to me 
as true, as obedient, and as conformable a wife as I could in 
my fancy wish or desire. She hath all the virtuous quali- 
ties that a woman of her quality, or of any lower rank, 
ought to possess. "2^ Arriving at Baynard's Castle, Cath- 
erine said to her council, ' ' This day, for the first time, lest 
I hurt my cause, I have not obeyed my lord the king ; but 
the next time I meet him, I will crave his pardon on my 
knees. ' ^" Summoned again on June 25 and 28, she refused 

25. Strickland, p. 544, quoting Cavendish ; see also Hope, p. 128, and 
Du Boys, p. 327 (footnote 2). 

26. Hope, p. 131. For a dramatic and historically accurate version 
of this trial scene at Blackfriars, see Shakespeare's King Henry the Eighth, 
Act II, Scene IV. 

27. Sander, p. 37. 



114 FRANCISCANS AND 

to appear. Instead, her written appeal to the Pope was 
solemnly read in court. 

Shortly after these occurrences, Wolsey and Campeggio 
visited Queen Catherine in the palace of Bridewell and 
begged her in the king 's name to consent to a divorce. Tak- 
ing the Cardinals aside, she remained for some time in 
earnest conversation with them. What she told them was 
never made known. It is probable that she again reproached 
Wolsey for having let matters come to this pass.^^ Certain 
it is, both Cardinals were after this interview more favor- 
ably disposed toward her. The next October, when the 
legatine court resumed its sittings, Henry 's council pressed 
the legates to give judgment. Then to the great disappoint- 
ment of the king, Campeggio declared that the Pope had 
found Catherine 's appeal justified and had already revoked 
her cause to Rome. With this the court was dissolved and 
Campeggio soon after left England. 

Though incensed at this turn of affairs, Henry for a time 
feigned kindlier feelings toward Catherine. Indeed, when 
told that Rome would likely decide against him, he was 
even on the point of dropping the matter entirely and of 
reinstating the queen in her rights.^^ But he had already 
gone too far and egged on by Anne, again began to treat 
the queen with cruel contempt. Her sufferings now became 
wellnigh unbearable. In the autumn of 1530, Chapuys 
wrote to the Emperor, ''The queen's ailment continues as 
bad or worse than ever. The king absents himself from her 
as much as possible, and is always here (at London) with 
the lady (Anne), whilst the queen is at Richmond. He has 
never been so long without visiting her as now, but states, 
in excuse, that a death from the plague has taken place near 
her residence. He has resumed his attempts to persuade 
her to become a nun ; this is, however, only lost time, for the 
queen will never take such a step. The continual uneasi- 
ness which she endures causes her to entreat your majesty, 

28. Du Boys, 346. 

29. Ibidem, p. 410, on the authority of Cardinal Pole. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 115 

as well in my letters as yours, that her suit be brought to a 
final conclusion. ' '^° 

During the ensuing Christmas festivities which Henry 
attended with Catherine at Greenwich, he again asked her 
to revoke her appeal to Rome and to submit the affair to 
four English prelates or secular lawyers. On her refusal, 
the king broke up the festive gathering and withdrew to 
Whitehall. Her subsequent refusal to acknowledge the 
king's supremacy in spiritual matters brought the affair to 
a crisis.^^ At Whitsuntide, 1531, a royal deputation again 
visited Catherine and requested her to submit the question 
to four English prelates and four nobles, since the king suf- 
fered great pangs of conscience. ' ' God grant my husband, ' ' 
replied the queen, ' ' a quiet conscience ; but tell him I am his 
lawful wife, married to him by the power of Holy Church. 
The court of Rome has taken the matter in hand : when it 
speaks I will submit. "^^ After the festival of Trinity, 
Henry and Catherine set out together for Windsor. The 
cruel monarch was by this time determined to take the fatal 
step. Accordingly, soon after their arrival, he left the royal 
palace and proceeded on a hunting tour with Anne Boleyn. 
We can readily imagine the bitter anguish that filled the 
soul of Catherine. But her grief knew no bounds, when 
about the middle of August she received a message from the 
king telling her that she and her daughter Mary were to 
leave Windsor before his return. ''Go where I may," the 
noble queen replied, ''I am his wife and for him I pray." 
In October, the king's envoys once more entreated Catherine 
on their knees to submit to a decision of English bishops. 
Thereupon, Catherine, too, fell on her knees and begged the 
envoys to use their influence with the king in her behalf. 
At first, she refused to go to the More in Hertfordshire, as 
Henry commanded, because the place was unhealthful. 
Finally, declining to choose a place of her own liking, she 

30. Strickland, p. 549. 

31. Hope, p. 229. 

32. Du Boys, p. 420. 



116 FRANCISCANS AND 

humbly obeyed his command, offering a silent prayer for 
him whom she was never to see again in this life.^^ 

Far from allowing a sullen and vindictive demeanor to 
widen the breach between herself and the faithless king, 
Catherine rather tried to forget her injuries and to soften 
the heart of Henry. Shortly after her arrival at the More, 
on New Year's Day, 1532, she sent him a golden cup in 
token of her undying love and esteem; but the uncivil 
wretch, though praising its beauty, returned the gift, say- 
ing he could accept none from her ; much less did he send 
her and her ladies the customary New Year's present, and 
he even went so far as to forbid his courtiers to do so.^* 
About this time, Catherine wrote to her daughter Mary, 
who was residing at Greenwich. In this letter, the care- 
worn queen does not complain of her wrongs. She merely 
says that the absence of the king and of her daughter 
troubles her; that she trusts in God, however, who will 
"shortly turn all to come with good effect." Then she 
urges her beloved child to be as assiduous in the study of 
Latin under her new tutor, Dr. Fetherstone, as she had been 
under her mother's direction.^^ 

Soon after her repudiation, Catherine informed the Pope 
of Henry 's measures against her. His Holiness, in a private 
letter, kindly but earnestly admonished the king to reinstate 
his lawful wife and to dismiss Anne, till Rome had pro- 
nounced sentence. The letter dated January 25, 1532, was 
sent to Catherine who, however, did not venture to forward 
it to Henry until the following May.^^ The latter entirely 
ignoring the Pope's fatherly appeal, continued to retain 
Anne in the queen 's apartments, and, as if to defy the Holy 
See, had Catherine removed to Buckden (Bugden), ^^ still 

33. Strickland, p. 551 ; see also Hope, pp. 234 seq. 

34. Hope, p. 237. 

35. Strickland, p. 551 ; the author brings the letter together with an 
autograph signature of the queen. Dr. Fetherstone was later martyred 
for the faith, and he is now numbered among the Blessed. 

36. Pocock, Vol. II, pp. 166 seq. ; Hope, pp. 251 seq. 

37. According to Strickland, p. 556, Buckden was a palace four miles 
distant from Huntingdon. It is not noticed by Timbs in his Abbeys 
. . . , of England and Wales, probably because it was of Inferior rank. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 117 

farther distant from court. This house, where the queen 
lived for some months, belonged to Longland, Bishop of 
Lincoln, who had formerly been Henry 's confessor, and who 
was now an ardent promotor of his cause. Naturally, this 
circumstance nettled Catherine, while the unwholesome 
climate greatly impaired her health. 

The next September, Anne was created Marchioness of 
Pembroke, and a month later she accompanied the king on 
a visit to the French monarch at Calais. Not satisfied with 
this public insult to Catherine, Henry was rude enough to 
send a messenger for her jewels, that Anne might wear them 
for the visit. The noble queen obeyed, though with reluc- 
tance, surmising, perhaps, that she would never see them 
again.^® 

It must have cheered the troubled heart of Catherine to 
know that, thanks to the activity of the Franciscans in her 
behalf, the people sympathized with her. If in brighter 
days she had had a high regard for these zealous friars, how 
much greater was her esteem now, when they proved the 
most fearless champions of her rights as wife and queen. 

Equally staunch in her defense was Bl. Thomas More 
and the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had charge of the queen's 
crown, and openly declared that he would never consent to 
have any other than Catherine wear it. Sir Henry Guild- 
ford, the Controller, and many other state officials spoke 
publicly in favor of the queen. The same is true of Bl. John 
Fisher and even of Reginald Pole, the king 's cousin. Thus, 
in the course of time, Anne Boleyn became an object of 
popular contempt. In derision the people nicknamed her 
Nan Bullen, and on several occasions threatened to take her 
life. Once she would surely have met a violent death at 
their hands had she not received a timely warning and made 
good her escape.^^ According to Ludovico Falier, a Vene- 
tian visiting England at the time, general discontent with 
the king's unjust policy ran so high that, could they have 

38. Hope, pp. 256, 287. 
89. Ibidem, pp. 261 seq. 



118 FRANCISCANS AND 

found a leader, the people would have risen in rebellion and 
demanded justice for the queen they loved. On December 
16, 1533, Chapuj's wrote to the Emperor: ''You can not 
imagine the grief of all the people at this abominable gov- 
ernment. They are so transported with indignation at 
what passes that they complain that your Majesty takes no 
step in it, and I am told by many respectable people, that 
they would be glad to see a fleet come hither in your name, 
to raise the people ; and if they had any chief among them- 
selves, who dared raise his head, they would require no 
more."'^ 

Nothing, however, was farther from the mind of Cath- 
erine than violent measures against the king. But for the 
rights of her daughter, which she felt in conscience bound 
to defend, the secluded and simple life at Buckden would 
have been quite to her fancy. As it was, she did not lose 
courage, but redoubled her prayers and mortifications, and 
daily implored the Author of light to guide the wayward 
king. Her trials, however, had only begun ; greater suffer- 
ings were in store for her. On April 23, 1533, she received 
a message from the king, informing her of his recent nup- 
tials with Anne and forbidding her thenceforth to use the 
title of queen. At the same time, he commanded that all 
correspondence between herself and Princess Mary must 
cease ; he knew how fond mother and daughter were of each 
other, and he hoped by this means to break the spirit of 
both.*^ On May 10, Cranmer, the newly appointed arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, convened an ecclesiastical court at 
Dunstable,"*^ six miles from Ampthill, where Catherine was 
then residing. Though repeatedly summoned to appear be- 
fore the tribunal, she firmly refused, and on May 23, she 
was declared contumacious. She lay sick on her pallet 
when, soon after, Lord Mountjoy and his coadjutors form- 

40. Stone, pp. 47, 64. 

41. Hope, p. 307. 

42. Cranmer held this court in direct opposition to Pope Clement VII, 
who on January 5, 1531, issued a Bull of Inhibition, strictly forbidding all 
courts whatever to pronounce sentence on the question of the divorce. For 
a copy of this Bull see Dodd, p. 286. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 119 

ally announced to her the court's decision in favor of the 
king's new marriage. Calmly, but steadfastly, Catherine 
objected to being styled Princess-Dowager of Wales, affirm- 
ing that she was the queen and the lawful wife of the king. 
Bribes and threats were unavailing. The matter involved 
the honor and right of her daughter, which she would de- 
fend at all hazards. More than that, the salvation of her 
own soul was at stake, and hence ' ' neither for her daughter, 
her servants, her possessions or any worldly adversity, or 
the king's displeasure, that might ensue, would she yield 
in this cause." Next day, demanding the written account 
of the proceedings, she took her pen and scratched the words 
Princess Dowager wherever they occurred.*^ On May 28, 
Cranmer held court at Lambeth and, to the great scandal of 
all England, publicly declared that the king had validly 
married Anne, who was, therefore, to be held and treated 
as queen of England. On May 29, she left for Greenwich 
in the queen 's barge for Westminster, where on the follow- 
ing Sunday her coronation took place. 

Though wantonly outraged in her holiest rights and 
tenderest sensibilities, Catherine obeyed the command of 
her brutal and shameless lord and returned to her miserable 
abode in Buckden. The people, who had witnessed the 
events of the preceding weeks with growing disgust and 
indignation, seized the occasion of her return to Buckden 
for public demonstrations of loyalty to her. Though they 
had been forbidden to style her queen, enthusiastic cries of 
"Long live Queen Catherine" met her at every turn. With 
tears the people begged her to raise the standard of revolt, 
declaring th^ey would lay down their lives for her.** Cath- 
erine, however, though touched at this unfeigned loyalty, 
recoiled at the mere thought of profiting by it. Henceforth, 
it seems, the sole object of her anxiety was the welfare of 
her daughter, whom Henry was heaping with indignities 

43. Strickland, p. 555, who adds that this document with the altera- 
tions made by the queen Is still extant in the national archives of 
England. 

44. Stone, p. 56, 



120 FRANCISCANS AND 

on her account. She knew to what hardships and dangers 
her dear child was exposed and secretly addressed a letter 
to her, which read in part : 

Daughter, I heard such things to-day, that I do perceive, if it 
is true, the time is come that Almighty God will prove you; and 
I am very glad for it for I trust He doth handle .you v^^ith good 
love. I beseech you, agree to His pleasure with a merry heart; 
and be sure, that without fail. He will not suffer you to perish, 
if you beware to offend Him. I pray you, good daughter, to offer 
yourself to Him. If any pangs (of conscienee) come to you, shrive 
yourself; first make you clean, take heed of His commandments, 
and keep them as near as He will give you grace to do, for then are 
you sure armed. And if this lady do come to you, as it is spoken, 
if she do bring you a letter from the King, I am sure, in the self- 
same letter, you shall be commanded what you shall do. Answer 
you with few w^ords, obeying the King your father in everything, 
Bave that you will not offend God, and lose your own soul; and go 
not further with learning and disputation in the matter. And 
wheresoever and in whatsoever company you shall come (obey), 
the King's commandments But one thing especially I de- 
sire you, for the love you owe to God, and unto me, to keep your 
heart with a chaste mind, and your body from all ill and wanton 
company I pray you recommend me unto my good lady Salis- 
bury, and pray her to have a good heart, for we never come to the 
Kingdom of Heaven but by troubles.45 

According to Harpsfield, who lived at the time, Cath- 
erine in some degree regained her cheerfulness and peace 
of mind at Buckden. She found delight in the simple man- 
ners of the country people who frequently visited her. Like 
a true child of St. Francis, she loved the poor and, as long 
as circumstances allowed, she assisted them in their needs. 
The Franciscans of the neighboring friaries likewise came 
to pay their respects to her *^ whose cause they had openly 
espoused. From them perhaps she heard that FF. Peyto 
and Elstow had finally been banished and were now living 
in exile, still true to her cause. Toward Anne she bore no 
resentment, but rather pitied her. One day, a gentlewoman 

45. Ibidem, p. 60. 

46. Camm : Lives of the English Martyrs, Vol. I, p. 277. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 121 

of her household began to heap curses on the name of Anne. 
The queen who had been weeping, quickly dried her tears 
and said earnestly, ' ' Hold your peace ! Curse not — curse 
her not, but rather pray for her ; for even now is the time 
fast coming when you should have reason to pity her and 
lament her case. ' '*^ During the court 's proceedings against 
Elizabeth Barton and her adherents, Catherine's prudence 
completely baffled the attempts of her enemies to draw her 
loyalty to Henry in question. ' ' It seems, ' ' writes Chapuys, 
*'as if God inspires the queen, on all occasions, to conduct 
herself well, and to avoid all inconveniences and suspicions ; 
for the Nun had been urgent, at divers times, to speak with 
her, and console her in her great affliction, but the queen 
would never see her."*^ Gloomy forebodings must have 
preyed on her heart, however, when she learned that the 
Holy Maid and her party had been executed, and that two 
Franciscans, FF. Rich and Risby, had suffered inhuman 
torture and death in defence of papal supremacy. 

Of the queen's life at Buckden we find an interesting 
account in Harpsfield. ''Queen Catherine," he writes, 
''spent her solitary life in much prayer, great alms and 
abstinence ; and when she was not this way occupied, then 
was she and her gentlewomen working with their own hands 
something wrought in needlework, costly and artificially, 
which she intended, to the honor of God, to bestow on some 
of the churches. There was in the said house of Bugden a 
chamber with a window that had a prospect into the chapel, 
out of the which she might hear divine service. In this 
chamber she enclosed herself, sequestered from all other 
company, a great part of the night and day, and upon her 
knees used to pray at the same window, leaning upon the 
stones of the same. There were some of her gentlewomen 
who curiously marked all her doings, and reported that 
oftentimes they found the said stones, where her head had 
reclined, wet as though a shower had rained upon them. 
It was credibly thought that, in the time of prayer, she re- 

47. Strickland, p. 556. 48. Stone, p. 24. 



122 FRANCISCANS AND 

moved the cushions that ordinarily lay in the window, and 
that the said stones were imbrued with the tears of her 
devout eyes when she prayed for strength to subdue the 
agonies of wronged affections."^® 

The following spring, on March 23, 1534, Pope Clement 
VII officially approved the decision of the Roman court, 
pronouncing Catherine's marriage with Henry valid and 
indissoluble.^^ Meanwhile, the schism was fast maturing. 
Before the Pope 's final decision reached the ears of the king, 
his pliant parliament, wholly controlled by Cromwell, had 
passed bills that practically severed England from Catholic 
unity and demanded of all English subjects under penalty 
of misprision of treason a solemn oath of allegiance to the 
spiritual supremacy of the king.^^ The fearless and out- 
spoken opposition of the Franciscans, and especially the 
Pope 's subsequent threat of excommunication, roused bitter 
hatred in Henry's heart against the queen, whom he sup- 
posed the cause of all these vexations. It is true, as Fran- 
ciscan Tertiary, Catherine naturally loved the friars. In 
fact she was in communication with them, and she had been 
frequently advised by Bl. John Forest. Never, however, 
would she have consented to take public reprisals on the 
king ; much less would the friars have advised such a course 
of action. The cross was her portion, and encouraged by 
the words and examples of her brethren in Christ, she 
gloried in it. Regarding the excommunication with which 
the Pope threatened the refractory king, we know for cer- 
tain that Catherine had done all in her power to avert the 
blow, so that Cardinal Pole could write, ''I understand to- 
day that if the queen had not interfered, the anathema 
would have already gone out against the king."^^ 

In May, Lee and Tunstal received orders to visit Cath- 
erine. Laying before her six articles, they tried to show 
why she ought to give up the title of queen. When, how- 

49. See Strickland, p. 556, quoting Harpsfield. 

50. For a copy of this Bull see Dodd, p. 294. 

51. See Lingard, p. 11. 

52. Strickland, p. 559. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 123 

ever, they adduced as reason the fact that Anne by the re- 
cent birth of Elizabeth had now a right to be called queen, 
Catherine's patience for a moment failed her, and facing 
her tormentors with defiant dignity she solemnly vowed 
never to relinquish the title of queen as long as she lived, 
fearlessly adding that she was the king's wife and not his 
subject and therefore not liable to his acts of parliament. 
''Henry's repudiated wife," Lingard remarks, ''was the 
only person who could defy him with impunity: she had 
lost his love, but never forfeited his esteem. ' '^^ 

The uncompromising firmness with which the queen 
maintained her rights, gradually drove Henry and his party 
on to severer measures against her. Early in 1534, the 
Duke of Suffolk received orders for her removal to Somer- 
sham in the Isle of Ely, "a place surrounded with water 
and marshes, the most pestilential spot in England." At 
this juncture, Chapuys wrote to the Emperor : 

The Duke of Suffolk, as I am informed by his wife's mother, 
confessed on the Sacrament, and wished some mischief might hap- 
pen to him to excuse himself from the journey. The King, at the 
solicitation of the Lady, whom he dares not contradict, has deter- 
mined to place the Queen in the said house, either to get rid of 
her, or to make sure of her, as the house is strong; and besides, it 
is seven miles from another house, situated in a lake, which one 
can not approach within six miles, except on one side; and the 
King and the Lady have agreed to seek all possible occasions to 
shut up the Queen within the said island, and failing all other pre- 
texts to accuse her of being insane. 

Catherine knew what was in store for her and refused 
to leave Buckden. She told the king's commissioners that, 
to remove her, they would have to break open the doors and 
take her by force. Not daring to do this for fear of the 
people, the commissioners departed.^* When the king heard 
of their failure, he was furious and began to heap new in- 
sults and indignities on the helpless queen. She was robbed 
of her royal income and forced to content herself with what 

53. Lingard, Vol. IV, p. 231. 54. Stone, p. 66. 



124 FRANCISCANS AND 

had been allowed her as Princess-Dowager. Servants and 
dependents, who still insisted on her royal title, were sum- 
marily dismissed and replaced by such as were willing to 
embitter her life, as the king ordered. Her house at Buck- 
den practically became a prison with Sir Edmund Beding- 
field as jailer, whose duty it was to observe the queen closely 
and to report regularly to headquarters regarding her con- 
duct. Henry hoped to find something that would justify 
legal proceedings against her.^^ From Chapuys's letter we 
learn how anxiously the godless king was waiting for her 
death. In fact, it seems that he even took direct measures 
to hasten her end. For the imperial ambassador writes: 
'^He (Henry) has great hope in the queen's death. He 
lately told the French ambassador, that she could not live 
long, as she was dropsical, an illness she was never subject 
to before. It is to be feared something has been done to 
bring it on." Catherine, it seems, knew all this and even 
feared she would be poisoned. '^The queen has not been 
out of her room," again writes Chapuys, ''since the Duke 
of Suffolk was with her, except to hear Mass in the gallery. 
She will not eat or drink what the new servants provide. 
The little she eats, in her anguish, is prepared by her cham- 
berwomen, and her room is used as her kitchen. She is very 
badly lodged ; she desires me to write to you about it. ' '^^ 

To judge from Henry's inhuman proceedings against 
others who in days gone by had enjoyed his favor and pro- 
tection, it is not unlikely that to satisfy Anne h® would in 
the end have resorted to the murder of Catherine, had not, 
in the fall of 1534, another opportunity presented itself of 
sating his vengeance on her. The queen had spent almost 
two years at Buckden, and her health had suffered greatly. 
Probably dreading the coming winter, she asked to be re- 
moved to a milder and drier place near the Metropolis. 
Accordingly, the relentless king commissioned the Duke of 
Suffolk to convey her to Fotheringay castle on the river 

55. Lingard, Vol. V, p. 7 ; Strickland, p. 560; Stone, p. 52. 

56. Stone, p. 68. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 125 

Nen in Northamptonshire.^^ Besides being notorious for its 
bad air, this place was especially disagreeable to Catherine, 
because it belonged to the dower settled on her by Prince 
Arthur. Moreover, by going there she would in some way 
have compromised her cause. Accordingly, she again ob- 
jected, so that the duke was at a loss how to proceed, and 
thought there was no other remedy than to convey her by 
force to Somersame. She remained, therefore, at Buckden 
till the end of 1534; when finally she consented to take up 
her abode, according to the king's command, at Kimbolton 
castle, some ten miles distant from Buckden.^^ 

Early in January, 1535, Catherine arrived there. When 
one remembers the precarious state of her health and the 
many discomforts a journey over an open country in the 
depth of winter entailed in those days, one may readily 
imagine what the outcast queen suffered, and what bitter 
anguish wrung her heart when at last she found herself 
imprisoned within the gloomy castle walls. Kimbolton was 
a wet and unwholesome place; hence the queen's malady, 
which worry and privation had brought on at Buckden, 
soon became desperate. 

As widow of Prince Arthur, she had a right to an an- 
nuity of 5,000 pounds sterling. But Henry maliciously 
deprived her of this income and allowed her barely sufficient 
means to maintain a scanty household. She was again 
placed in the custody of Sir Edmund Bedingfield, who more 
than once informed his royal master that Catherine 's house- 
hold was utterly devoid of money. How poor, in fact, she 
was, may be seen from her last will, in which mention is 
made of a new gown she had obtained on trust. ^^ 

The unfortunate queen had been residing at Kimbolton 
only a short time, when the news reached her that Princess 
Mary was dangerously ill.^° Likewise informed that Henry 

57. In this castle, about fifty years later, another saintly queen. Mary 
Stuart of Scotland, spent the last months previous to her execution. 

58. Strickland, pp. 558-562. 

59. Du Boys, p. 504 ; Strickland, pp. 570 seq. 

60. Princess Mary had been banished from court, because she per- 
sisted in the title of royalty and steadfastly refused to relinquish it in 



126 FRANCISCANS AND 

had permitted her phj'sician and apothecary to attend the 
Princess, Catherine took heart and humbly petitioned the 
king to allow her to nurse and comfort their ailing daughter. 
But the heartless tyrant, suspecting a plot to get Mary out 
of the country, refused the request of his loyal queen. He 
promised, however, to place the princess near her mother, 
provided the two would not meet. Catherine's subsequent 
letter of gratitude to Cromwell is interesting, inasmuch as 
it shows her mental and physical condition at this time. 

My good friend, you have laid me under great obhgation by the 
trouble you have taken in speaking to the king, my lord, about the 
coming of my daughter to me. I hope God will reward you, as you 
know it is out of my power to give you anything but my goodwill. As 
to the answer given you ... I beg you will give him (the king) 
my hearty thanks for the good he does to his daughter and mine, and 
for the peace of mind he has given me. You may assure him, that 
if she, were but a mile from me I would not see her, because the time 
does not permit me to go visiting, and if I wished it, I have not the 
means ... I have heard that he had some suspicion of her 
security — a thing so unreasonable that I cannot believe it entered 
his heart, nor do I think he has so little confidence in me. If such 
a thing be assumed, I beg you to tell his majesty, it is my fixed 
determination to die in this kingdom, and I offer my person as security 
that if such a thing be attempted, he may do justice upon me as the 
most traitorous woman that ever was born.si 

Neither reasons nor petitions could prevail over the pride 
and obstinacy of Henr3\ He was determined once for all 
that mother and daughter should never meet again in' this 
life. Even Chapuys, whom for political reasons the king 
was forced to treat with due deference, failed to move his 
heart of steel. Against all the arguments of the Spanish 
ambassador he objected ''that there was no occasion to con- 
fide Mary to her mother's hands, for it was Catherine who 
had put it into her head to show such obstinacy and dis- 
obedience."^^ 

Anguish and fear distracted the soul of Catherine on 

favor of Elizabeth, born to Henry by Anne Boleyn. See Lingard, Vol. V, p. 
29 (footnote 2). 

61. Stone, pp. 78 seq. 

62. Ibidem, p. 80. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 127 

hearing into what confusion the king s profligacy and per- 
verseness was plunging the country. When those of her 
household who sympathized with Henry's godless policy, 
openly accused their royal mistress of being the cause of 
all this misfortune, the hapless queen, weakened in mind by 
bodily suffering and deprived of right-minded counselors, 
seems, indeed, to have been troubled in conscience as to 
whether her mode of action could be justified before God. 
Many a time, no doubt, she thought of the faithful Fran- 
ciscan friars, from whom in days gone by she had so often 
obtained advice and consolation. How fearlessly they had 
defended her cause and the rights of the Pope ; how terribly 
they had already been visited by the king's anger and ven- 
geance. Surely, their attitude toward the king 's policy was 
a model on which she might safely fashion her own. These 
reflections accompanied by ceaseless prayer, reassured her 
and buoyed up her drooping spirits. 

About this time, the unfortunate queen learned to her 
dismay that Fr. John Forest, her former confessor and 
spiritual adviser, had been imprisoned in Newgate, and that 
he would soon be led to execution. Despite the danger of 
having her letter intercepted and thus bringing new suffer- 
ings on herself as well as on her aged father and friend, 
she nevertheless wrote to him, knowing how much a word 
of cheer from her would gladden his last hours.^^ 

My Honoured Father — You who have had so long experience 
in directing others in doubtful matters, can have no difficulty in 
directing yourself, for not only will your religion, but your learn- 
ing also convince you, that you ought to be prepared, if it be 
necessary, to suffer death for the name of Christ, and under such 
circumstances not to shrink from so doing. Go onwards, then, 
and be of good courage, for if in these torments you endure a small 
amount of pain, you are well assured that you will receive an eter- 

63. This letter and Bl. John Forest's reply are taken from Stone : 
Faithful Unto Death, pp. 54 seq. The author translates them from Fr. 
Thomas Bourchier : Hist. Eccl. de Martyrio FF. Ord. Min., remarking that 
this edition of the friar's valuable history contains the only perfectly cor- 
rect version of the letters. The Parisian edition of 15S6 brings (pp. 53 
seq.) a slightly different version of them. Parkinson and Du Boys tran- 
scribe the letters from Sander. 



128 FRANCISCANS AND 

nal reward. To relinquisli such a reward as this for the dread of 
the suffering, might well be accounted the act of a confirmed mad- 
man. 

But alas for me, your daughter! one born to you in the wounds 
of Christ, whom for a season you leave here in her solitude; leave, 
I repeat, in the depth of her distress and affliction. And this I 
may venture to say because I am losing him whom alone I fol- 
lowed in the things of God, because I knew him to be deeply in- 
structed in human and divine knowledge. And of a truth, if I 
may freely express to you what I wish, I w^ould rather go before 
you through a thousand torments than follow after you. And even 
were it possible to obtain what one most earnestly desires, who 
is there, I ask, who would be content to live upon nothing but hope ? 

Casting aside therefore my own individual wishes, I would pre- 
fer that the whole of these matters should remain in the hands of 
Him w^ho gave us Himself for our example. This He did when He 
said, ''Thy will be done," thereby giving up His own will, rather 
than gratify His own inclinations. You will go before me, yes, 
you will precede me, but your prayers will obtain for me, that I 
should follow you along the same pathway, advancing, as I trust, 
with an ever braver and steadier footstep. Onwards, then; be as- 
sured that albeit the pangs that you suffer be grievous, yet I share 
them along with you. Without doubt, they shall earn for you a 
crown which never withers, a crown prepared for those who en- 
dure for the name of Christ, provided that wdth unflinching and 
unwavering courage you suffer the agonies which are awaiting 
you. Remember your ancient and noble family, and this thought 
will assuredly animate you to bear with a brave spirit the death 
which awaits you for the name of Christ. You who are illustrious 
by the title of your family, will not basely defile its nobility by 
yielding to the impious demands of the King. I do not forget that 
you esteem the dignity of your Order in so far, and no farther, as 
it is correspondent with virtue. Surrender, then, and with all joy, 
that body of yours to its Creator, that body which for so long a 
period has led a holy life under the garb of the poor Institute of 
St. Francis. 

And yet, when I, your obedient daughter, remember how great 
will be the sorrow which I shall endure for your sake, I know not 
what to say. This arises chiefly from the thought that you are 
leaving me without comfort of any kind. My abode in this world, 
and my anticipations, can be nothing else than misery; a real death 
in a living life. Nevertheless, I trust in the Lord, to whom I have 
said, ''Thou art my lot in the land of the living," that land in 
which I hope to meet you shortly, when the storms of this world 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 129 

shall have ended, and I shall have passed into the peaceful life 
of the blessed. 

Farewell, my honoured Father, and always remember me in 
your prayers while on earth, and I trust they will be my chiefest 
consolation when you shall have obtained an entrance into the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

Your daughter Catherine, with a heart full of sorrow. 

As is evident from the tone of the letter, the queen 
thought that the blessed martyr had only a short time to 
live.^* Her fears were confirmed on the receipt of the fol- 
lowing beautiful letter from the saintly friar. 

My most serene Lady Queen and my very dear daughter in the 
heart of Christ Jesus. 

I have received your letters from Thomas, your young servant, 
and having read them, I experienced an incredible joy by reason of 
your great steadfastness in the truth which I perceive in you — I mean 
your faith in the Holy Church your Mother. Standing firm in this, 
you will assuredly obtain salvation. Nor have you any reason to be 
doubtful on my account, as if I could submit to disgrace my grey 
hairs by any such fickleness. In the meantime, I earnestly entreat you 
to be imwearied in your prayers to God for me (for whose spouse the 
Church we are suffering so many and so severe torments), that He 
would receive me into His glory, for which I have striven so fre- 
quently as a member of the Order of St. Francis, namely for forty- 
four years, and am now in the sixty-fourth year of my age. At such 
a period of life as this a man easily perceives that people can do 
without him; consequently I am most earnest in my prayer that I 
may be dissolved to be with Christ. 

In the mean season, do you be careful to shun that pestilential 
teaching of the heretics so thoroughly that, even if an angel were to 
come do^vn from heaven bringing with him a doctrine different from 
that which I brought you, on no account ought you to give any credence 
to his message, but to reject it. Should he advance any revelation 
which dissents from that which I taught you long ago, give no eai 
to it, for it does not come from God. Take these few words as if m 
place of the consolation which you may expect chiefly from our Lord 
Jesus Christ, to whom I chiefly recommend you, as also to my father 
St. Francis and St. Catherine, to whom I most earnestly entreat you 
to pray for me, when you shall hear that I am in the midst of my suffer- 

64. The martyrdom of Bl. John Forest, ns we shall see, did not take 
place till May 22, 1538. 



130 FRANCISCANS AND 

ings. And now I bid you farewell. I have sent my rosary to you, for 
only three days of my life remain to me. 

From a letter which Elizabeth Lady Hammond, one of 
the queen's faithful gentlewomen addressed to Bl. John 
Forest we learn how Henry ever anxious to detect some flaw 
in the queen 's conduct had Kimbolton castle closely searched 
for secret letters and for persons previously expelled from 
her service; and further, how the king's agents by their 
threatening attitude terrified the queen and her ladies.^^ 
Thus the dreary year 1535 dragged on, bringing Catherine 
ever nearer to death's door. "The fury of her enemies," 
writes Guerin, '^increased in proportion as her sufferings 
grew more intense. She was almost constantly sick in 
bed."«« 

It was probably in the fall of 1535 that Cranmer visited 
her and in the king's name commanded her to sign the act 
recognizing Henry's spiritual supremacy over the Church 
in England. At this, the queen became indignant ; but be- 
ing unable longer to bear up under her hardships, she 
fainted.®^ Hatred and revenge possessed Henry 's rebellious 
mind, when he was told of Catherine's refusal to take the 
oath of supremacy. On November 6 and 21, Chapuys in- 
formed the emperor of the danger that threatened the queen 
and her daughter. He claimed to have it on reliable 
authority that the king ''would no longer remain in the 
trouble, fear, and suspense he had so long endured, on ac- 
count of the queen and princess. . . . and that he meant 
to have them despatched at the next parliament. . . . 
These are things," he continues, ''too monstrous to be be- 
lieved ; but considering what has passed, and goes on daily — 
the long continuance of these menaces — and, moreover, that 
the C. . . . (Anne), who long ago conspired the death 
of the said ladies, and thinks of nothing but getting rid of 
them, is the person who governs everything, and whom the 

65. stone : Faithful Unto Death, p. 58 ; Strickland, p. 564 ; Du Boys, 
p. 508. 

66. Guerin, Vol. I, p. 142, 

67. Ibidem, Vol. I, p. 143. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 131 

king is unable to contradict, the matter is very dangerous. ' '^* 
What the faithful ambassador feared never came to pass. 
The sudden demise of Catherine before the opening of 
parliament prevented Henry from taking these last terrible 
measures against his faithful and saintly queen. 

About this time, an incident occurred which shows how 
even to the very end the queen enjoyed the love and favor 
of the lower classes. A workman of Grantham near Kim- 
bolton, while working in his field, accidentally unearthed a 
huge brass pot that contained besides some silver chains and 
ancient rolls of parchment, a large helmet of pure gold set 
with precious stones. Thinking of the queen in her poverty, 
he brought the treasures to the castle, with the request that 
they be given to her. But Catherine was already at death 's 
door.^^ 

In the latter part of December, Catherine realized that 
her end was near. When Chapuys, whom she had sum- 
moned for a last interview, arrived at the castle, he found 
her in a pitiable condition. Seeing at a glance that it was 
now only a question of a few days till death would come to 
her relief, he decided to stay with her to the end.'^ On 
New Year's day. Lady Willoughby who thirty years before 
had attended Catherine as maid of honor, by sheer strategy 
gained access to her."^^ We are told that frequently in a 
state of delirium the dying queen imagining her daughter 
near would stretch forth her arms and exclaim, ' ' Mary, my 
child ! ' '"^^ Humbly she begged the king for a last interview 
with the princess for whose sake she had borne her heavy 
cross these many years. But even now the cruel despot re- 
mained cold and obdurate. At last, only a few days before 
her death, Catherine called one of her maids to her bedside 
and dictated the following pathetic letter to her unworthy 
consort -J^ 

68. Stone : Marp the First, Queen of England, p. 90. 

69. Du Boys, p. 504, on the authority of Harpsfield. 

70. Stone, Mary . ... of England, p. 92. 

71. Strickland, p. 567. 

72. Gu6rin, p. 143. 

73. Strickland, pp. 564 seq. 



132 FRANCISCANS AND 

My Lord and dear Husband: — 

I commend me unto you. The hour of my death draweth fast 
on, and, my case being such, the tender love I owe you forceth me, 
with a few words, to put you in remembrance of the health and safe- 
guard of your soul, which you ought to prefer before all worldly 
matters and before the care and tendering of your own body, for 
the which you have cast me into many miseries and yourself into many 
cares. For my part I do pardon you all; yet, I do wish and devoutly 
pray God that He will also pardon you. 

For the rest I commend unto you Mary, our daughter, beseech- 
ing you to be a good father unto her, as I heretofore desired. I entreat 
you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage-portions, which 
is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants I solicit 
a year 's pay more than their due, lest they should be unprovided for. 

Lastly do I vow that mine eyes desire you above all things. 

It is said that Henry wept when he read this touching 
avowal of his rejected queen's undying love and loyalty.'^* 
But alas ! his better self was wholly enfettered by one whose 
only hope of complete triumph lay in the death of the noble 
queen. 

During the visit of Chapuys and Lady Willoughby, 
Catherine rallied somewhat. There was still hope for a 
temporary recovery, so that on January 5, the ambassador 
deemed it safe and advisable to leave Kimbolton. He prom- 
ised, however, to return at the first intimation of danger. 
On January 9, he asked Cromwell for an audience with the 
king. How shocked he was when in reply he received the 
sad news that forty-eight hours after his departure from 
Kimbolton Catherine had suddenly passed away. Sir Ed- 
mund Bedingfield announced her demise in these words: 
** January 7th, about ten o'clock the lady-dowager was 
aneled with the holy ointment, Master Chamberlayne and I 
being called to the same, and before two in the afternoon she 
departed to God.""^^ 

' ' The suddenness of her end, and the circumstances im- 
mediately following it, caused so much suspicion, that at 
the time there was hardly any one who did not firmly believe 

74. Sander, p. 85. 

75. Strickland, p. 568, on the authority of the State Papers. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 133 

that she had been poisoned. "^^ According to the ambas- 
sador's subsequent letter to the emperor, Catherine died two 
hours after midday, and eight hours later an autopsy was 
held in the greatest secrecy. Neither the bishop of Llandaff , 
confessor of the queen, nor her physician were allowed to 
be present. Immediately after, one of the three men who at 
the king 's command had performed the examination confided 
the results to the queen's confessor, ''but in great secrecy, 
as a thing which would cost his life. ... On my man, ' ' 
continues the ambassador, ' ' asking the physician if she had 
died of poison, he replied that the thing was too evident, by 
what has been said to the bishop, her confessor, and if 
that had not been disclosed, the thing was sufficiently clear 
from the report and circumstances of the illness. ' ' 

In the same letter of Chapuys we are informed how 
the king and his court party rejoiced when the news 
arrived that Catherine was dead. The next day, on Sun- 
day, Henry ''was clad all over in yellow, from top to toe." 
After dinner, he proceeded to the hall where the ladies were 
dancing and acted "like one transported with joy." Hav- 
ing sent for the infant Elizabeth, he took her in his arms 
and presented her to his fawning courtiers. No less exultant 
was Anne Boleyn. "Now," she exclaimed, "I am indeed 
a queen ! ' ' Hastening to her parents, she bade them be glad 
with her, for now her triumph was complete. On the day 
of the queen's funeral, Anne out of contempt for Catherine 
appeared in yellow and made her ladies do the same, 
although the king had commanded black to be worn on that 
day.'^'' Mary was heartbroken when she heard of her 
mother's sudden demise. "Of the princess, my cousin," 

76. stone : Mary .... of England, p. 92. Whether the king was in 
any way implicated in this heinous crime is not known. As we have seen, 
he certainly longed for Catherine's end, and he probably would have had 
her condemned to death and executed by the next parliament. As to Anne 
Boleyn's share in the murder of the queen, Gasquet, in his Henry VIII 
and the English Monasteries (Vol. I, p. 2S5), declares on the authority 
of Friedmann that the crime was perpetrated "if not at the instigation, at 
least with the connivance of Anne Boleyn." 

77. Strickland, p. 678. Could the wretched woman have only fore- 
seen what was in store for her. Henry's aversion to her gradually became 
more pronounced. On May 9, four months after the death of Queen 



134 FRANCISCANS AND 

the emperor wrote, * ' I hear only that she is inconsolable at 
the loss she has sustained, especially when she thinks of her 
father's past behaviour towards her, and the little favour 
she can expect for the future. ' '"^ 

The last will of Catherine bears eloquent testimony to the 
eminent virtues that marked her sad but glorious career.'^^ 
The first provision she made was that her body ''be buried 
in a convent of Observant friars. ' '^° In life the royal Terti- 
ary had ever cherished the highest regard for the sons of St. 
Francis, and hoping perhaps that in time they would be 
allowed to return to their convents, the saintly queen could 
find no more suitable resting place after death than in the 
midst of those who like her had suffered for justice sake. 
But alas ! her dying wish was entirely disregarded. Writing 
to Lady Bedingfield^^ on arranging for the funeral of his 
*' dearest sister lady Catherine," the king ordered that, on 
January 26, the corpse should be escorted by the principal 
gentry of Kimbolton to Peterborough, about four miles 
north, and interred in the abbey church. At the subsequent 
suppression and spoliation of the religious houses in the 
kingdom, Henry made some show of regard for the queen he 
had wronged, and spared the beautiful abbey church, where 
as late as 1847, the old verger still pointed out to travelers 
the little brass plate that marked the last resting place of the 
glorious Tertiary Queen Catherine of Aragon.^^ 

Concerning Kimbolton Castle, Timbs informs us that 
''the room in which she (Catherine) died remains. The 
chest, in which she kept her clothes and jewels, her own 
cipher on the lid, still lies at the foot of the grand stair- 

Catherine, he had her tried and condemned to death for high treason, and 
that by the very parliament that would probably have passed the same 
sentence on the rightful queen. 

78. Stone : Marp . ... of England, p. 98. 

79. Strickland, p. 569, quotes the will from Strype's Memorials. 

80. stone : Faithful Unto Death, p. 62, quotes a letter of Chapuys to 
the emperor, dated January 21, 1536. In this letter, the ambassador 
writes : "The Lady Catherine, in her memorandum of last wishes, desired 
to be buried in a convent of Observant friars. Cromwell replied that as to 
the burial it could not be done as she had desired, for there remained no 
convent of the Obse^'vants in England." 

81. Strickland, p. 571, quotes the letter. 

82. Ibidem, p. 573. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 135 

case/'^^ From a letter of Horace Walpole. dated June 22, 
1772, we learn that at Amp thill ''nothing remains of the 
castle, nor any marks of residence but a small garden. ' ' At 
his suggestion, a cross was erected to Catherine's memory, 
on which he had engraved the following verses : 

In days of old, here Ampthiirs towers were seen, 
The mournful refuge of an injured queen.84 

Every student of this period of English history is ac- 
quainted with Shakespeare's drama, King Henry the Eighth. 
The poet's sympathetic treatment of Queen Catherine of 
Aragon mirrors the sentiments of the English nation in the 
beginning of the seventeenth century. To show how cor- 
rect historically is Shakespeare's delineation of her char- 
acter we take the liberty, even at the risk of wearying the 
reader, to quote at some length from H. N. Hudson's com- 
mentary on the play. His remarks will serve at the same 
time as a summary of the queen's many beautiful traits. 

' ' She maintains the same simple, austere, and solid sweet- 
ness of mind and manners through all the changes of fortune. 
Yet she, too, rises by her humiliation, and is made perfect by 
suffering, if not in herself, at least to us: for it gives her 
full sway over those deeper sympathies which are necessary 
to a just appreciation of the profound and venerable beauty 
of her character. She is mild, meek, and discreet ; and the 
harmonious blending of these qualities with her high Castil- 
lian pride gives her a very peculiar charm. Therewithal she 
is plain in mind and person ; has neither great nor brilliant 
parts ; and of this she is fully aware, for she knows herself 
thoroughly: but she is nevertheless truly great, — and this 
is the one truth about her which she does not know, — from 
the symmetry and composure wherein all the elements of her 
being stand and move together: so that she presents a re- 
markable instance of greatness in the whole, with the absence 
of it in the parts. How clear and exact her judgment and 
discrimination ! Yet we scarce know whence it comes, or how. 

83. Timbs, p. 497. 84, Strickland, p. 574, 



136 FRANCISCANS AND 

From the first broaching of the divorce, she knows the thing 
is all a foregone conclusion with the king ; she is also in full 
possession of the secret why it is so : she feels her utter help- 
lessness, being, as she is, in a land of strangers, with a 
capricious tyrant for the party against her, so that no man 
will dare to befriend her cause with honest heartiness : that 
no trial there to be had can be anything but a mockery of 
justice, for the sole purpose will be to find arguments in sup- 
port of what is predetermined, and to set a face of truth on 
a body of falsehood; she has no way therefore but to take 
care of her own cause ; her only help lies in being true to her- 
self ; and indeed the modest, gentle, dignified wisdom with 
which she schools herself to meet the crisis is worth a thou- 
sand-fold more than all the defences that any learning and 
ingenuity and eloquence could frame in her behalf. 

''Her power over our better feelings is in no small 
degree owing to the impression we take, that she sees through 
her husband perfectly, yet never in the least betrays to him, 
and hardly owns to herself, what mean and hateful qualities 
she knows or feels to be in him. It is not possible to over- 
state her simple artlessness of mind ; while nevertheless her 
simplicity is of such a texture as to be an overmatch for all 
the unscrupulous wiles by which she is beset. Her betrayers, 
with all their mazy craft, 'can neither keep from her thq 
secret of their thoughts nor turn her knowledge of it into 
any blemish of her innocence ; nor is she less brave to face 
their purpose than penetrating to discover it. And when 
her resolution is fixed, that "nothing but death shall e'er 
divorce her dignities, " it is not, and we feel it is not, that she 
holds the accidents of her position for one iota more than 
they are worth ; but that these are to her the necessary sym- 
bols of her honor as a wife, and the inseparable garments of 
her delicacy as a woman ; and as such they have so grown in 
with her life, that she can not survive the parting with them ; 
to say nothing of how they are bound up with her sentiments 
of duty, of ancestral reverence, and of self-respect. More- 
over many hard, hard trials have made her conscious of her 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 137 

sterling virtue: she has borne too much, and borne it too 
well, to be ignorant of what she is and how much better 
things she has deserved; she knows, as she alone can know, 
that patience has had its perfect work with her: and this 
knowledge of her solid and true worth, so sorely tried, so 
fully proved, enhances to her sense the insult and wrong that 
are put upon her, making them eat like rust into her 
soul. ... 

''Catherine in her seclusion, and discrowned of all but 
her honor and her sorrow, is one of the author 's noblest and 
sweetest deliverances. She there leads a life of homely 
simplicity. Alwaj^s beautiful on the throne, in her humili- 
ation she is more beautiful still. She carries to the place no 
grudge or resentment or bitterness towards any ; nothing but 
faith, hope, and charity; a touching example of womanly 
virtue and gentleness; hourly in heaven for her enemies; 
her heart garrisoned with 'the peace that passeth all under- 
standing. ' Candid and plain to herself, she loves and hon- 
ours plainness and candour in others ; and it seems a positive 
relief to her to hear the best spoken that can be of the fallen 
great man who did more than all the rest to work her fall. 
Her calling the messenger 'saucy fellow,' who breaks in so 
abruptly upon her, discloses just enough of human weakness 
to make us feel that she is not quite an angel yet ; and in her 
death scene we have the divinest notes of a ' soul by resigna- 
tion sanctified.' "'^ 

85. Hudson : Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Character, Vol II, pp. 
196 seq. 



CHAPTER IX 

BLESSED JOHN FOREST, O. F. M. 

Birth and parentage — Enters the Franciscan Order — Doctor 
of Oxford — Provincial of England — Espouses the 
queen's cause — Fr. Richard Lyst, traitor and spy — 
Blessed Forest and the king — Attempt to remove Forest 
from the provincialship — Staunch defender of papal 
supremacy — Imprisoned, tried, condemned to death — 
Martyrdom delayed — With the Conventuals in London 
Entrapped in the confessionxil — Before the Privy Coun- 
cil — Once more in Newgate — Tried for heresy — Sen- 
tenced to die at the stake — His alleged submission — 
Drawn on a hurdle to Sfnithfield — The friars and the 
bishop — Dreadful torture and death. 

We have seen in the course of our narrative how fear- 
lessly the English Franciscans championed the rights of 
Queen Catherine, and how bravely they suffered banishment, 
imprisonment, torture, and death in defence of papal 
supremacy. We have contemplated the life and martyrdom 
of the illustrious Tertiary Chancellor Bl. Thomas More, and 
have seen the saintly Tertiary Queen Catherine of Aragon, 
insulted, discrowned, and repudiated by a faithless and cruel 
king. Before continuing our sad but edifying story, we 
must direct our attention to a man whose glorious example 
of unswerving loyalty to truth guided and encouraged the 
friars at the outbreak of the storm and finally won for him 
the martyr's crown. 

Bl. John Forest was born in 1471. It is probable that 
the place of his birth was Oxford, where according to Wood 
there resided about the middle of the fifteenth century a 
family by the name of Forest.^ William Forest, the poet 

1. Thaddeus, Life of Blessed John Forest^ p. 2. 

138 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 139 

priest, is supposed to have been related to the martyr.^ As 
appears from the letter of Queen Catherine,^ he was of an 
ancient and noble family. Of his early years nothing is 
known beyond the fact that, as Wood observes, ' ' he was from 
his childhood educated in piety and learning."'* During the 
last two decades of the fifteenth century, the reform move- 
ment in the Order of St. Francis was fast gaining ground 
in the English Province, while the friars by their zeal and 
sanctity were attracting nation-wide attention. Hence we 
can readily imagine how the parents of Forest rejoiced when 
he told them of his desire to forgo the promises and pleas- 
ures of the world and to embrace the secluded and holy life 
of the Franciscans. Gladly they consented, and in 1491, 
the young man of twenty summers^ received the gray habit 
in the friary at Greenwich. 

The year of novitiate and the subsequent years of study 
were spent in seclusion and prayer. Shut off from worldly 
cares and distractions, the youthful friar was laying the 
foundation of that magnificent structure of Franciscan ideals 
which was destined to stand unshaken amid the fury of 
warring elements. Little did he surmise, kneeling in prayer 
before the image of his heavenly Queen, what great things 
were in store for him, and what a noble part he was one day 
to play for the spiritual welfare of his country. 

In 1500, at the age of twenty-nine, we find Forest residing 
in the friary without Watergate, a suburb south of Oxford,, 
where he devoted himself to the study of theology. Later, 
he pursued a higher course in the sacred sciences, presum- 
ably at the university of Oxford. Here, as Wood informs 
us, he supplicated the venerable regents for permission to 

2. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VI, p. 144. Among his writings 
is a long poem on Queen Catherine of Aragon. 

3. See the foregoing chapter. 

4. Parkinson, Antiquities of the English Franciscans, p. 241. 

5. The year of Forest's birth (1471) and that of his entrance into 
the Franciscan Order (1491) are based on his letter to Queen Catherine, 
which was most probably written in 1535. (See the foregoing chapter.) 
In this letter, he says expressly that he is in his sixty-fourth year, and 
that he has passed four and forty years in the Order of St. Francis. Other 
historians affirm that he was seventeen years of age when he entered the 
Order. See Parkinson, p. 241. 



140 



FRANCISCANS AND 




Bl. John Forest 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 141 

take the degree of doctor of divinity. Whether he was 
admitted, is not known. Although Wood thinks that Forest 
received the degree neither at Oxford nor at Cambridge, 
still he says that, especially about the year 1517, the regis- 
ters of Oxford were badly kept. This, Parkinson urges, 
may account for the absence of Forest 's name from the roster 
of Oxford doctors, "or perhaps," as he suggests, ''he was a 
doctor of Paris. ' '® At all events, it is certain that he held 
the title ; for, besides Wood, also Stow, Godwyn, How, Holin- 
shed, Pits, Wadding, Davenport, Bourchier, Mason, and 
most later historians, like Dodd, apply it to him ; while the 
fact that Hugh Latimer, on the morning of Forest's 
martyrdom, repeatedly addressed him as Doctor, seems to 
i*emove all doubt in the matter. 

As years went on, Fr. John Forest became known far 
and wide as a man of eminent learning and sterling sanctity. 
Wholly imbued with the spirit of St. Francis, he labored 
zealously in establishing and spreading the Observant re- 
form among the friars in England. It was quite natural, 
therefore, that, probably on the death of the provincial Fr. 
Stephen Baron, about the year 1520, he was elected by the 
friars to succeed him.'' It must have been in virtue of his 
authority as provincial superior that, on January 22, 1525, 
he received orders from Cardinal Wolsey to preach at St. 
Paul 's Cross and publicly to pronounce the censures of the 
Church on nineteen friars of the Greenwich community. 
They had left the friary without permission as a protest 
against Cardinal Wolsey, who wished to make a canonical 
visitation of their convent, to which act he claimed his lega- 

e. See Parkinson, p. 241. 

7. That Forest was provincial is asserted by Wood, Parkinson, Dodd, 
Magliano, Leon, Gasquet, Holzapfel (on the authority of Wadding), and 
by the Breviarium liomano-Seraphicum. Thaddeus and Hope accept It 
as at least probable, while Stone thinks "there can be little doubt" that 
he held the oflBce. That, as Wood and Dodd say, he succeeded Fr, Stephen 
Baron in this oflSce, is denied by Parkinson. The latter (p. 222) places 
Forest after a certain Fr. William, who had succeeded Baron, but on being 
elected definitor general was constrained to resign the provincialship. We 
may add that several incidents in the life of Forest and the prominent 
part he played at the outbreak of the religious troubles show that he was 
provincial superior, whom the other friars were obliged to obey, and whom 
above all the king sought to win over to his cause. 



142 FEANCISCANS AND 

tine jurisdiction empowered him. Though the friars had 
evidently failed by thus transgressing the enclosure rule, 
and by the very act had incurred papal censures, still the 
justice of their protest can not be denied, since Pope Leo X, 
on the request of Henry VIII, had exempted them from the 
jurisdiction of his legate.^ "But," as Stone remarks, "in 
the manner of their repulse, they were undoubtedly wrong 
and Forest saw in it a flaw in their loyal attitude towards 
the See of Peter, of which he was so jealous a watchman."^ 

This remarkable incident in the life of Forest shows 
how by his sanctity and learning he had secured the con- 
fidence of the highest civil and ecclesiastical authorities in 
England. He was subsequently appointed regular preacher 
at St. Paul 's Cross. This was at the time the most popular 
pulpit in England. Hence it gave the zealous friar an 
opportunity to exert a vast influence on the public mind. 

As a fervent Tertiary of St. Francis, Queen Catherine 
had learned to esteem the. worthy provincial of the Francis- 
cans, to whom, we know, she was singularly devoted. Be- 
sides appointing Forest her chaplain at Greenwich, she 
chose him as her confessor and spiritual adviser. To him 
she confided the innermost secrets of her soul, especially 
when the dark clouds of domestic tribulation began to gather 
over her. We have every reason to suppose that her noble 
and heroic forebearance with her faithless consort must be 
in great part ascribed to the wise counsel of the Franciscan 
provincial, in whose prudence she placed absolute trust. 
The beautiful letter she wrote to him shortly before her de- 
mise, breathes the spirit of a loving and confiding child, 
grateful to the last for the many benefits received at the 
hands of her spiritual father. Him alone, she remarks in 
this letter, she followed in the things of God, because she 
knew him to be deeply instructed in human and divine 
knowledge.^^ 

8. See Parkinson, p. 224 ; also Grey Friars Chronicle critically edited 
in Monumenta Franoiscana (Vol. II) by Richard Hewlett (p. 190). 

9. Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 48. 

10. See the foregoing chapter. . 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 143 

Needless to say,'Forest was wholly in sympathy with the 
wronged queen. Well versed in the sacred sciences, he was 
from the start convinced that her marriage with Henry was 
valid and indissoluble. Hence, when the question of the 
king's *' secret affair" became a matter of public comment, 
he had already put aside all doubt and hesitation, and was 
among the first openly to defend Catherine's rights when- 
ever occasion offered. After 1531, when the queen by order 
of Henry was residing at the More in Hertfordshire, her 
former confessor frequently visited her. This is plain from 
a letter which a spy addressed to the king. ''As concerning 
the Friars Observants, ' ' he says, ' ' they came at divers times 
to confess the ladies and gentlewomen, and sometimes they 
said it was their way from one of their houses to another. 
As many names as I did know I shall declare Riche, 
Peto, Sabastyan, Curson, Robynson, Fforest and Neswick, 
with divers others."" 

The king was well aware, not only of the provincial's 
mind on the divorce question, but of the great influence the 
dauntless friar was exerting on those with whom he came in 
touch. Accordingly, he summoned him one day to the royal 
palace and conferred alone with him for more than half an 
hour. It has never been learned what passed between the 
king and the friar during this private interview. But we 
may take it for granted that the man of God, like another 
John the Baptist, bravely showed his royal master the utter 
untenability of his position and warned him against the 
dangerous path he was pursuing. If the wayward king was 
displeased with the friar's unfavorable decision, he could 
not but admire his frankness and sincerity. He subse- 
quently ordered some beef from the royal table to be brought 
to the Greenwich friary.^^ Perhaps he hoped in this way to 
make him and the community more favorably disposed 
toward his projected divorce. We know how poorly he 

11. Camm, Lives of the English Martyrs, p. 277. 

12. See Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, Vol. I, 
p. 158. 



144 FRANCISCANS AND 

succeeded with the Franciscans at large.' It remains to be 
seen how the provincial met the advances of the king, and 
how much he had to suffer in defence of truth and justice. 

Cromwell, Henry's pliant tool, and Anne Boleyn, his 
worthless bauble, were keeping the Greenwich community 
under close surveillance. They were determined to know 
the sentiments of each friar regarding the much mooted 
question, and to this end they succeeded in winning the 
services of Richard Lyst,^^ a lay brother of that friary. 
The letters^* of this renegade to his royal patrons are still 
extant. They show that the writer was no longer true to 
his vows, and that he was discontented with his station as 
lay brother and with the strict Franciscan mode of life. 
Blinded by promises of royal preferments, he so far lost 
sight of the duties he owed to God and to his Order as to 
play the base role of rebel and traitor. 

In one of his letters to Anne Boleyn, the unhappy friar 
tells *'his friend^' that for his fidelity to her and to the king, 
he has much to suffer, and has often been called in derision 
Anne's chaplain. He is not yet a priest, he avers, but he 
has ambition to become one and to say one hundred Masses 
for her welfare. Such a thing is possible now, he adds, 
because the young woman to whom he was ''made sure in 
the way of marriage, before his coming into religion, is de- 
parted to the mercy of God. ' ' He concludes with a petition 
for money ; he had purchased clothes and other things for 
his mother and is now forty shillings in debt. 

How bitterly he hated Fr. Forest and sought to cripple 
his influence, we learn from a letter which he addressed to 
Cromwell. 

13. "This Richard Lyst," Gasquet notes, "says in another letter that 
he was 'of old lord cardinal's servant.' He 'has dreadful dreams three 
or four nights each week,' and thinks 'he could serve God better in another 
state than' as he is, and 'get rid of his trouble. He adds, 'The informa- 
tion I sent you about friar Forest deserves support.' A few months after 
he writes as a student in 'first orders' from Clare Hall, Cambridge, saying 
he Intends to be a 'secular priest.' " (p. 159.) 

14. They are quoted in part by Stone, pp. 7 seq., as found among the 
Cottonian MMS. and in Ellis's Original Letters. Though they bear no 
date, it is most probable that they were written in the interval between 
the summer of 1532 and the following spring. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 145 

Sir, your Mastership shall understand that Father Forest, which 
doth neither love nor favour you, hath laboured divers ways to sup- 
plant and bring Father Laraus,i5 which is the King's faithful, true 
subject, out of favour, both with the King's Grace and with all our 
fathers and brothers, and also, as much as in him is, to expulse him 
out of our convent of Greenwich; and his original and chief cause is, 
because he knoweth that Father Larans is provided, and will also preach 
the King's matter, whensoever it shall please his Grace to command 
him, and so the very truth is, that Father Forest will not preach the 
King's matter himself, nor yet suffer Father Larans by his will to 
do so. Also I think, it were very convenient and necessary that the 
Chancellor of London were spoken unto, no more to assign Father 
Forest to preach at Paul's Cross. Our fathers have oftentimes 
assigned me to associate Father Forest when he hath gone forth in 
preaching, because they have supposed in me some intelligence and 
learning ; and many a time when he hath preached, I have sitten under 
the pulpit with a pair of red ears, because I have heard him so often 
break Master Priscian's head; therefore, in my judgment, it is more 
convenient for him to sit at home with his beads than to go forth 
and preach. Also, I pray your Mastership, have me meekly recom- 
mended unto my Lady Marquess of Pembroke (Anne Boleyn), unto 
whom I am much bound unto, and also that poor mother of mine, 
by the reason of her charitable benefits. 

On another occasion, the unworthy friar has weighty 
accusations to make against FF. Peyto, Elstow, Forest, and 
others. He is anxious to tell Cromwell all he knows, in 
order to ease his "heart sore to see, perceive, and know the 
unkindness and duplicity of Father Forest against the 
King's Grace," who has bestowed so many benefits on the 
provincial and on the whole community. ''The word 
'duplicity,* " Stone remarks, "is characteristic of the 
writer's confused state of mind ; he apparently estimates the 
value of a conscience at the price of 'a great piece of beef/ 

15. Stone (p. 8) observes that " 'Father Larans' was probably a cer- 
tain Friar Laurence, whom Father Forest apparently succeeded in turning 
out. There is a letter among the Cotton manuscripts from John Laurence 
to Cromwell, relative to his return to his cloister, the King having seem- 
ingly ordered the Greenwich Franciscans to take him back. In this letter, 
he begs Cromwell to insist on his being lodged in a certain room, in which 
he will have access to the outside world, be comparatively uncontrolled, 
and have freedom to correspond about the 'King's matter.' He entreats 
him not to allow him to be sent back to his old quarters." Later, as Camm 
notes (p. 181), this Laurence gave evidence against FF. Rich and Risby 
in the affair of the Holy Maid of Kent. 



146 FRANCISCANS AND 

which Father Forest had received as a present, 'from the 
king's table.' " 

During the 3'ear 1532, rumors of Henry's proposed mar- 
riage with Anne Boleyn were sweeping like threatening 
clouds over the country. Gloomy presentiments weighed on 
the hearts of the people who knew the strong will of their 
sovereign. Catherine no longer resided with him in the 
palace at Greenwich. Anne Boleyn already occupied the 
apartments of the rejected queen, and it was felt throughout 
the length and breadth of England that Henry would eventu- 
ally espouse her and have her crowned queen, no matter 
what the ecclesiastical court at Rome would decide regard- 
ing his former marriage with Catherine. 

Owing to the proximity of their convent to the royal 
palace, it was but natural that the Greenwich friars should 
frequently converse among themselves on the king's matter. 
Little did they suspect that in their very midst was one who 
stood in secret correspondence with the queen 's enemies, and 
who was constantly reporting their utterances to headquar- 
ters. Cromwell, anxious to establish himself in the royal 
favor, was not slow to acquaint the king with Lyst's venom- 
ous depositions. This explains why Henry, once so well 
disposed toward the friars, now began to hate them, espe- 
cially those of Greenwich, who were loudest of all in con- 
demning his policy. Though he still feigned friendly feel- 
ings toward the provincial, in his heart he was determined 
to let him feel his displeasure. As confessor of Queen 
Catherine, he thought, Forest might have induced her to 
submit to the royal will. Instead, he had all along favored 
her cause, had exhorted his brethren to do likewise, and had 
even forbidden Fr. Laurence to preach the opposite. He 
must thwart the influence of this obstinate and loud- 
mouthed friar. Accordingly, in the summer of 1532, the 
minister general of the Order received a letter from the 
English king, demanding that he depose the Franciscan pro- 
vincial and appoint in his stead Fr. John de la Haye, of 
Flanders, who would be unbiased in his view on the impor- 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 147 

tant question. The minister general prudently evaded the 
difficulty by replying that he had no power to depose a pro- 
vincial, but would send the desired friar as commissary gen- 
eral to England.^^ 

The commissary general did not arrive till the following 
spring. In the meantime, Lyst continued his vile deposi- 
tions, and Forest, it seems, was repeatedly summoned before 
the king to answer for the conduct of his subjects. At a 
chapter of the province,^^ held in August, 1532, the provin- 
cial informed the assembled friars that the king was greatly 
displeased with them ; that he had even been thinking of sup- 
pressing their Order in Englamd; that he would desist for 
the present, however, being satisfied with his (Forest's) read- 
iness to have the minister general replace him by a friar of 
Henry's choice. "All this," observes Camm, ''reflects no 
little credit on Forest, who, it is clear, played a considerable 
part in these conciliatory measures, without in any way 
compromising his own high principles. ' '^® 

On September 26, 1532, the Franciscan friars held chap- 
ter at Richmond. This we learn from a "warrant under 
the sign manual to Cromwell as master of the jewels, to 
deliver to the Friars Observants, now at their chapter at 
Richmond, to be employed as alms, L6, 13s, 4d."^^ What- 
ever may have been transacted at this chapter, we are not 
inclined to believe that the friars consented to the election 
of a new minister provincial. They were too much in sym- 
pathy with Forest to accede to the wishes of the king for 
his removaj from office. ^^ The following February, shortly 

16. Parkinson, p. 227. 

17. This was perhaps the chapter at which all the members of the 
Order in England were assembled. 

18. Compare this statement with the author's assumption regarding 
Forest's supposed temporary submission. 

19. Thaddeus, p. 15. 

20. Here, it is true, one of Cromwell's letters, dated September 13, 
1532 (see Thaddeus, p. 14), confronts us with a difficulty. On the reverse 
of this letter is found a brief note in which Cromwell lists the six Fran- 
ciscan friaries with the names of their respective wardens or guardians 
and places Fr. Peyto (Peyton) at the head of the list as minister. Although 
this note does seem to have some connection with the chapter held on Sep- 
tember 26, 1532, at Richmond, still it is by no means certain that Cromwell 
was correctly informed as to the results of the chapter. What was more 



148 FRANCISCANS AND 

nfter Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn, the provincial 
was again at court. But Lyst had previously apprised 
Cromwell of Forest's coming, and had supplied him with 
serious accusations against the friars. It was, therefore, 
with mingled feelings of sorrow and alarm that, on return- 
ing to the convent, the man of God called his brethren to- 
gether and told them how coldly he had been received at 
court, and how enraged the king was at the entire com- 
munity.^^ But he was none the less determined to con- 
tinue on his course of action ; and we may take it for granted 
that, in his zeal for the spiritual welfare of his brethren, he 
exhorted them faithfully to pursue the path of duty and to 
bear up like true sons of St. Francis under the trials and 
afflictions that were sure to overwhelm them in the near 
future. 

It must have been early in 1533 that Forest with deep 
sorrow became aware of Lyst's treachery. The informing 
lay brother, on his part, was racked with fear and remorse 
when he learned that his misdeeds were laid bare. In April, 
he wrote to Cromwell, requesting that his previous letters 
be burned, lest their contents be turned against him. At the 
same time, he pleaded for the minister's and the king's pro- 
tection. Forest, he complained, would have nothing more 
to do with him and refused to answer him, when he offered 
*'to make some amends unto God and to the religion whom 
he hath offended. ' ' Little faith, however, must be placed in 
this accusation against the saintly friar. If he really did 
treat the informer harshly, it was only to try him. How 
insincere Lyst was, we can judge from a letter he addressed 
to Cromwell soon after the arrival of the commissary gen- 
eral. He writes : 



natural under the circumstances than that the friars should for the present 
at least keep the name of their minister provincial secret from royal oflB- 
cials ? Moreover, this note is perhaps merely a plan of Cromwell's, showing 
what he would wish when once Fr. Forest should be removed from his office 
as provincial. In fact, this theory becomes quite probable when we remem- 
ber how willing Forest was to have the minister general send one to rule 
the province in his stead. 
21. Camm, pp. 279 seq. 



THE PKOTESTANT REVOLUTION 149 

There is a good father of our religion, a Frenchman, come from 
beyond sea unto us, which is chosen and assigned to be our minister, 
head, and ruler, here in this province, and I trust he shall do much 
good among us, if he will be indifferent secundum veritatem, as I trust 
he will, and help to reform Father Forest especially, and also some 
other things to be reformed among us. And so, if it were the King's 
pleasure and yours, good it were and also convenient, the King 's 
Grace and also your Mastership to speak with our foresaid new 
minister, and to inform him under what manner he should use him- 
self among us concerning the King's gracious honour. Also if it 
were your pleasure to help to reform Father Forest, and to get him 
removed out of this house, either to Newark or to Newcastle, I think 
you should do a meritorious deed, and have great reward of good 
therefor, and many thanks and prayers of many in our religion. And 
as for my part, I have done, and yet will do as much as is in m^ pos- 
sible, to the furtherance and accomplishment of the same, with the 
grace of Jesu, who have you in His blessed keeping. Amen. 

During Lent, the commissary general arrived, and at a 
chapter held soon after he was recognized as provincial.-- 
To ensure the removal of Forest from the vicinity of Green- 
wich and of the royal court, Lyst had resorted to base 
trickery. He drew up a lengthy statement containing all 
the calumnies his black heart could fabricate against his 
worthy fellow friar. Having sent this statement to Crom- 
well, he laid a copy of it before the new provincial. Thus 
the latter, no longer free to act as justice demanded, was in 
some way forced to sacrifice Forest, in order to avoid greater 
difficulties. '' Indeed," says Camm, ''so wrongly were 
things now ordered, that it would seem as though the destiny 
of the noblest father in the province were decided by the 
whim of the basest brother. "^^ In May, Lyst informed 
Cromwell that ''Father Forest, your little friend and less 
lover, and mine also, for all his great cracks" had been re- 
moved from Greenwich. The worthless renegade added that 
his letter incriminating Forest had been duly considered 
by the new minister and by all the fathers of the house, who 

22. Perhaps this was the chapter which Fr. Pej'to attended as warden 
of Greenwich on the day after his sermon against the king's proposed mar- 
riage with Anne Boleyn. 

23. Camm, Vol. I, p. 250. 



150 FRANCISCANS AND 

in consequence had removed Forest to a convent in the 
North. ''This," Stone observes, "is so obviously the testi- 
mony of a false witness that we need be at no great pains 
to refute it. There is absolutely no evidence to show that 
Father Forest was ever out of favour with his brethren, but 
that, on the contrary, if we except the conduct of a few rene- 
gades such as Lyst and Laurence, we find the greatest 
unanimity among them with regard to Henry's marriage 
with Catherine. "24 

Bitter anguish rent the soul of Forest when he beheld to 
what a pass the king 's ' ' secret affair ' ' had come. The storm 
of persecution, he felt, was inevitable. Soon it would spell 
death and destruction for the Order he loved so tenderly and 
for the Church for whose welfare he had labored so long. 
"What pained him most was the thought that one of his own 
brethren had wantonly severed the ties that bound him to the 
law of God and to the Rul« of St. Francis, and that he was 
bartering his immortal soul to gain the favor of a corrupt 
and godless court. As to his own removal from office, he 
looked upon it as a special favor from Heaven. Now he was 
free from weighty cares and responsibilities, and had ample 
time to devote himself entirely to prayer and penance. 
Many an hour he knelt before his hidden God in the taber- 
nacle, wrapt in fervent prayer for the king, that he might 
leave the path of iniquity; for the queen, that she might 
carry her cross with patience and perseverance ; for the un- 
fortunate lay brother, that he might see his mistake and 
repent in time ; for his other brethren and for himself, that 
they might remain firm in the hour of trial when they should 
be called upon to choose between the holy law of God and the 
wicked demand of the king. What joy and pride must have 
thrilled his loyal heart on learning that FF. Peyto and 
Elstow had boldly upbraided the king for his lawless policy, 
and rather than deny their sacred trust, had gladly gone 
into exile. 

It is not known for certain to which convent in the North 

24. Stone, p. 12. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 151 

Forest was transferred, nor how long he remained there. 
Perhaps it was at this time that he undertook to write his 
book in defence of the Church and of the Pope. Beginning 
with the words, ' ' Let no man take the honor to himself, but 
he that is called by God, as Aaron was," the book is a 
strong invective against the king 's usurping of the spiritual 
supremacy, which belonged to the Pope alone. Whether 
this had anything to do with the friar's imprisonment in 
1534, is not clear.^^ There is little doubt, however, that 
Henry was enraged when he heart of it,^^ so that, when late 
in the spring of that year, he determined to imprison the 
Franciscans and confiscate their convents. Forest was among 
the first to suffer. That he was in prison in 1534, seems quite 
certain from an official report in which the man of God is 
mentioned as being 'Hhere (London) in prison." To this 
Gasquet remarks, "Perhaps the most conclusive proof that 
he was probably in prison at this time is that we hear no 
more about him. Cromwell's 'remembrances' are silent 
about this formidable opponent."" Neither is it certain 
whether he was in an ecclesiastical or a civil prison. Possi- 
bly, he was at first detained in the convent of the Grey 
Friars on the North Side of Newgate Street in London, and 
late in 1534 was cast into Newgate prison for again refusing 
to take the oath of supremacy, which, we know, became law 
on November 18 of that year. 

Slanderous tongues did not scruple at the time to be- 
smirch the name of Forest, so widely known for sanctity and 
learning. Hall's Chronicle was especially influential in 
spreading these libels and leading later historians into 
error.^^ Thus Wood avers that Forest had taken the oath 
of royal supremacy, while Stow contends that the friar 
himself later admitted he had taken the oath only with the 

25. Bourchier, Hist. Eccle. de Mart. FF. Ord. D. Francisci, pp. 31 seq. 
Though later historians say that Forest wrote this book in Newgate, Bour- 
chier speaks of it rather as one of the causes that led to the martyr's 
imprisonment. 

26. Stone, p. 56, on the authority of Wood. 

27. Gasquet, Vol. I, p. 167. 

28. Stone, pp. 49 seq. 



152 FRANCISCANS AND 

outer man, but never consented thereto in conseience.^^ * ' If 
this were true, ' ' declares Stone, ' ' it would be in such direct 
opposition to all that we know of Father Forest's firmness 
under trial, of his strength of character, his sincerity and 
fearlessness, that his life would be a hopeless tangle of con- 
tradictions. It would have been so poor a preparation for 
a martyr's death, that instead of the cry of jubilation with 
which he greeted the fire and gallows, we should expect to 
hear him bartering for his life at the stake. But one who 
had stood up and publicly denounced his brethren, for their 
resistance to the representative of the Pope, one who, in the 
face of the king's ruthless passion, had persisted in an atti- 
tude which said as plainly as words could say, ' It is not law- 
ful for thee to have this woman to wife, ' was not the man to 
condescend to a mean subterfuge, in order to save a life 
which he had repeatedly exposed with greatest indifference. 
He was by his position, by his acknowledged virtue, and by 
his talents, a leader of men. Through his influence, the 
friars of Greenwich had been guided safely through the 
shoals and quicksands of the divorce and the royal suprem- 
acy, and if he had succumbed with his ' outer man, ' he would 
have been the only member of his community to take the 
oath."3« 

We may take it for granted that the king's agents re- 
peatedly visited Forest in prison and did all in their power 
to win him over to Henry's cause. The faithful and fear- 
less friar was as staunch in his allegiance to God and to his 
Order as the royal commissioners were zealous in the service 
of Henry and of their own interests. He gloried in the 
thought of dying for the faith, as FF. Rich and Risby had 
done but a twelvemonth before.^^ Never, with the help of 
God, would he prove disloyal in a cause for which they had 
laid down their life. Cromwell fully realized this ; he gave 
orders that the friar's durance be made more severe and at 

29. Se^ Parkinson, p. 243; Gasquet, Vol. I, p. 195, footnote. 

30. Stone, p. 48, citing Canon Dixon's History of the Church of 
England. 

31. See chapter IV. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 153 

last had him condemned to death. Though for some rea- 
son the sentence was not immediately carried out, the fact 
that it had been passed on him, is sufficiently attested by the 
letter he wrote to Queen Catherine three days before his 
martyrdom was to take place. ^^ 

During his confinement in Newgate, he received a letter 
from Lady Elizabeth Hammond, at one time his penitent 
and now lady in waiting on the queen. In his letter, he is 
told how the queen is grieved and alarmed over his impend- 
ing doom ; that he should try to escape from prison, if possi- 
ble, lest the queen fall into an illness that would prove fatal. 
To this the holy man replied : 

My Daughter, Elizabeth Hammond: — 

I am, indeed, sorely grieved at the sorrow which you and your 
mistress feel about the pains I am enduring, just as if there were 
no resurrection unto glory. These are certainly not principles which 
among other lessons of piety I have frequently impressed upon you; 
if they are, however, then know that at the time I was erring wide 
of the true road. Were I willing to barter my faith and deliver 
myself to the devil, from fear of suffering or from a desire for the 
riches of this world, I could without doubt easily escape ; do thou, how- 
ever, not entertain such thoughts. Learn, therefore, to suffer for the 
true teaching of Christ and for his spouse and thy mother, the Church, 
and do not attempt to turn me from those torments by which I hope 
to obtain eternal happiness. 

Follow, I beseech you, in the footsteps of the Queen, your mis- 
tress, imitating the glorious example you see in her, and pray for me, 
that they may increase the severity of the torments which they intend 
to inflict on me, since they are but small when compared with the 
glory of God which they are to further.33 

About 1536, as we have already heard, a number of events 
combined to cool for a time at least Henry 's rage against the 
first opponents of his tyrannical and bloody measures. Pos- 
sibly at this juncture, Fr. Forest, like other members of the 
province, was permitted to leave Newgate and to take up 



32. See the foregoing chapter. 

33. Bourchier, pp. 61 seq. 



154 FRANCISCANS AND 

his abode with the Grey Friars in London.^* Mental and 
bodily sufferings had greatly enfeebled him, and the king 
perhaps was still in hopes that clemency on his part and the 
influence of others less faithful would in the end triumph 
over the aged friar. How Forest lived in the London con- 
vent we learn from the memorandum of Lord Mordaunt who, 
in 1537, made his Easter confession to him.^^ Subject to the 
Conventual warden, a nominee of the king, Forest led a life 
of seclusion and prayer. Most conscientiously he observed 
the vow of poverty. He refused to take any remuneration 
from Lord Mordaunt, referring him to the porter, who had 
charge of all money matters. He was not allowed to preach, 
but said the Lady 's Mass every day and was much engaged 
in the confessional. On the question of the king's usurped 
supremacy, he was silent except where duty forced him to 



Though the friar's outward conduct gave his enemies 
little chance for accusations, at heart he was as loyal and 
zealous as ever. Cromwell was anything but satisfied with 
Forest's condition in the London friary. Wholly bent on 
bringing him to the scaffold, he not only engaged spies to 
watch him, but even went so far as to abuse the Sacrament 
of Confession. The afore-mentioned memorandum of Lord 
Mordaunt is nothing less than a deposition regarding For- 
est's procedure in the sacred tribunal of Penance.^^ Previ- 
ous to the spring of 1538, however, nothing but vague and 
incoherent rumors could be gathered, until finally Crom- 
well struck upon a diabolical plan. One day, while Forest 
was hearing confessions, a certain Waferer entered the 
sacred tribunal. After making some sort of confession, the 
vile wretch complained that his conscience was troubling him 

34. This, we think, accounts for Forest's liberation from Newgate and 
for his subsequent sojourn in the London friary as satisfactorily as the 
supposition, made by some historians, that he took the oath with the saving 
clause, as far as Christ's law allows, a supposition entirely irreconcilable 
with the friar's previous and subsequent conduct regarding the oath. 

35. The memorandum is quoted in full by Camm, Vol. I, pp. 293 seq. 
It Is dated February 23, 1538. This date, however, "must not be taken as 
that on which the incident happened, but as that on which the memoran- 
dum was written." Thaddeus, p. 15. 

36. Camm, Vol. I, p. 295. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 155 

ever since he had taken the oath of supremacy. Exhorted 
by the man of God to repent of his sin and to trust in the 
mercy of God, the hypocrite asked the unsuspecting friar 
whether he, too, had taken the oath. ' ' No, ' ' came the ready 
reply, ''I would rather burn than swear such a thing." 
This was enough. "Thank you," replied Waferer, ''I do 
not wish to know more. ' ' "With this he rose from his knees 
and reported the matter to headquarters.^^ 

Now Cromwell and his clique had positive proof that 
Forest was dissuading penitents from taking the oath. 
Without delay, the priest was summoned before the Privy 
Council, over which Cromwell presided. With great 
courage and skill he again defended the papal supremacy, at 
the same time maintaining strict silence on all matters that 
pertained to the seal of confession, lest he unwittingly impli- 
cate his penitents. ''He succeeded in saving others," re- 
marks Camm, ' ' though his bold confession of the Faith, the 
boldest perhaps that we have of any martyr of this period, 
cost him his life."^^ Cromwell in his blind fury was not 
satisfied with having him die the death of a traitor ; he would 
have him convicted of heresy and burned at the stake.^^ 

For the present, the helpless victim of base deceit was* 
lodged in a solitary dungeon in Newgate. Here he under- 
went all the horrors and hardships that hatred and cruelty 
could devise. His hands and feet were bound with iron 
chains, and for several days he was left there suffering the 
greatest misery .*° His condition must have been most 
pitiable. He was now sixty-seven years of age, and his 
health was much impaired by the sorrow and worry of the 
last few years. He greeted his solitude, however, as a spe- 
cial favor from above and employed his time preparing for 
the final struggle. 

37. stone, p. 52. 

38. Camm, Vol. I, p. 297. 

39. This is evident from the Excerpts of Forest's so-called Confessions, 
I.e., the examination he was subjected to before the Privy Council. Crom- 
well's mind in this regard is further clear from Cranmer's letter written 
to him on April 6, 1538. See Camm, Vol. I, p. 301. 

40. See Bourchier, p. 39. 



156 FRANCISCANS AND 

On May 8, after a month of woful durance in Newgate, 
Forest was arraigned before Cranmer's court at Lambeth. 
He realized that this was the beginning of the * ' greater com- 
bat, " as he chose to call it in a letter to Bl. Thomas Abel,*^ 
on& of his former penitents. Raising his eyes to heaven he 
prayed with all the ardor of his soul, ' ' I give thee thanks, 
Lord God, who hast deigned to call me, a most miserable 
sinner, to the singular privilege of professing to-day, here 
in the presence of all, the true faith that I cherish, and of 
freely declaring what I hold regarding thy pure, unsullied, 
and only spouse, the Roman Catholic Church. For the 
threats of the king, I fear not, nor consider the torments 
that, no doubt, are awaiting me on account of my faith; 
and so far am I from seeking and striving after earthly hon- 
ors that I will not accept them, but will gladly suffer 
death. *'« 

After the usual court preliminaries, Forest was ordered 
to abjure as ''most abominable heresies'' four articles which 
on Cranmer's suggestion had been drawn up with a view 
to indicting him for heresy. The four articles read : 

1. That the Holy Catholic Church was the Church of Rome, and 
that we ought to believe out of the same; 

2. That we should believe in the Pope's pardon for the remis- 
sion of sins; 

3. That we ought to believe and do as our fathers have done 
aforetime fourteen years past; 

4. That a priest may turn and change the pains of hell of a 
sinner, truly penitent, contrite of his sins, by certain penance enjoined 
him in (to) the pains of purgatory. — Which said articles be most 
abominable heresies, blasphemy against God, and contrary to Scrip- 
ture and the teaching of Christ and His Apostles, and to abhor any 
true Christian heart to think.43 

41. He was a secular priest, a man of eminent sanctity and learning, 
and from the start a staunch advocate of Queen Catherine's rights, who 
had appointed him her chaplain and director of music. In 1533, when the 
case of the Holy Maid of Kent came up, he was Imprisoned, but later set 
free. He openly defended the papal supremacy, for which he was again 
cast into prison and finally, on July 30, 1540, martyred at Smithfield. His 
name was on the list of those whom Pope Leo XIII enrolled among the 
Blessed on December 9, 1886. 

42. Bourchier, p. 45. 

43. Camm, Vol. I, p. 302, quoting from Wriothesley's Chronicle. 



THE PROTESTANT KEVOLUTION 157 

Although he clearly foresaw what the sequel would be, 
the fearless friar declined to make the required abjuration. 
He was convinced that the first three articles embody Cath- 
olic doctrine; and as to the fourth, he readily detected its 
insidious character and firmly refused to forswear it in its 
proposed form. Accordingly he was remanded to Newgate. 
His confinement now became less severe, if Latimer's sus- 
picions are correct. Latimer writing to Cromwell, on May 
18,** claimed he had heard that Forest was permitted to 
confer with others imprisoned for the faith and even to hear 
holy Mass and receive the sacraments. Probably, the jailer 
admired and felt for the feeble old friar bearing his suffer- 
ings so patiently, and allowed him such liberties as were 
compatible with his own safety. Perhaps, too, it was only 
a last attempt on the part of Forest's enemies to cajole him 
into submission. Be this as it may, prayer and meditation 
strengthened the man of God in his determination bravely 
to fight the good fight to the end. In vain, therefore, the 
royal officials came to him in prison and demanded that he 
sign the abjuration of the four articles. Neither threats nor 
promises could shake his constancy. With equal intrepidity 
he turned a deaf ear to Cromwell directing that he attend 
Latimer's sermon at St. Paul's Cross, on May 12, and do 
public penance for his heresies.*^ Needless to say, this un- 
compromising attitude of the loyal friar infuriated his 
enemies. He was forthwith pronounced a confirmed heretic 
and sentenced to die at the stake. In his afore-mentioned 
letter to Cromwell Latimer consented "to play the fool" 
and preach the sermon at Forest 's burning. 

Before relating the details of the glorious martyrdom 
that crowned the beautiful life of Bl. John Forest, we must 
examine whether he verbally abjured the four articles and 
declared his willingness to do public penance at St. Paul's 
cross, as Camm seems inclined to believe.*® The only au- 

44. For a copy of this letter see Camm, Vol. I, p. 312. 

45. See Camm, Vol. I, pp. 310 seq. 

46. "Though the articles," Camm remarks, "were signed in writing, 
the 'abjuration' or 'submission' was by word of mouth only. If it (the 



158 FRANCISCANS AND 

thorities for this story are Hall and Wriothesley. Hall 
writes : ' ' He was after sundry examinations, convinced and 
confuted, and gladly submitted himself to abide the punish- 
ment of the Church." Wriothesley 's testimony reads: 
''John Forest, Friar Observant, Doctor of Divinity (was) 
adjured for heresie on the eighth day of the month of May, 
at Lambeth, before the most reverend father in God, Thomas 
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterburie, with other. . . . 
The articles (were) subscribed with his own hand (and he) 
sworn and abjured on the same, and after sworn again to 
abide such injunction and penance as he should be enjoined 
by the said court. ' ' 

This twofold testimony, so derogatory to the fair name 
of Forest exerts such a pressure on Camm that he is unable 
to believe the affair a ''mere fabrication," since "all other 
chroniclers support it." 

In the first place, it is not true that all other chroniclers 
support it. "Not only," says Stone, "are Sander and 
Bourchier silent as to the charge, but Foxe, always so ready 
to make much of any tale to the discredit of Catholics, makes 
no mention of any projected penanCe at St. Paul's Cross. "*^ 
Neither does Collier seem to know anything of the affair. 
He simply says, "By what law they could stretch his (For- 
est's) crime to heresy is hard to discover, for he was tried 
only for dissuading his penitents in confession from owning 
the King's Supremacy."** Of more modern historians 
whose works we have been able to consult, Leon, Guerin, 
Hope, Gasquet, Thaddeus, Domenichelli simply ignore the 
story, Parkinson and Spillmann discard it as incredible, 
while Dodd and Stone take it up and refute it. 

But, who are Hall and Wriothesley whose testimony 
Camm dares not discard as a "mere fabrication"? Hall 
was a contemporary of Henry VIII ; up till 1533, he wrote 



written abjuration)," he adds, "could have been produced (by Latimer on 
the morning of Forest's martyrdom), it certainly would have been" (p. 310, 
footnote). 

47. stone, p. 64. 

48. Gasquet, Vol. I, p. 197, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 159 

on passing events. When he ceased to write, Richard Graf- 
ton, a bitter Protestant, indiscriminately published what 
Hall had collected, whether authenticated or not.*" "The 
part relative to Forest," as Camm himself remarks, "may- 
have been based upon some political pamphlet of the 
time."^^ Hall, therefore, as Stone contends, "is not re- 
sponsible for the statement referring to Forest, ' ' and since 
Grafton declares he "added nothing of his own," the sup- 
posed account of Hall "and the story told by Wriothesley 
four years later, have one and the same origin, the real author 
remaining incognito. "^^ Why Wriothesley repeated the 
libel is obvious. For he "had no leaning towards the re- 
ligious orders, but went entirely with Henry in his ruth- 
less nationalism and greed. "^^ Thus the extrinsic evidence 
supporting the story of Forest's verbal abjuration is ex- 
tremely weak. It is solely based on the assertion of men 
whose testimony is, to say the least, questionable for the 
very reason that they were contemporaries of the friar whom 
they basely maligned and of the king whose cause they 
sought to further. Hence we fail to understand why Camm 
finds it so very hard to ' ' escape the conclusion that, what- 
ever Forest may have done or said on May the 8, he did not 
' confess the faith ' with credit to himself. ' '^^ 

From intrinsic reasons it becomes still more evident that 
the story is in very deed ' ' a mere fabrication, ' ' hatched in 
the biased mind of some obscure political agitator, then pub- 
lished as Hall's statement by a malicious bigot, and finally 
repeated by one who was anything but fair in matters that 
concerned the persecuted friars. How, we ask, can this 
supposed momentary weakness of the heroic martyr be 
reconciled with his characteristic constancy and attested 
learning? If four years before he steadfastly refused to 
admit the king's supremacy in matters spiritual, is it credi- 
ble that he would have acted less firmly now when he saw 
that clear and express tenets of his holy faith were at stake, 

49. See Stone, p. 50. 52. Stone, p. 63, footnote 5. 

50. Camm, Vol. I, p. 325. 53. Camm, Vol. I, p. 309. 

51. Stone, p. 50. • 



160 FRANCISCANS AND 

and when he realized what terrible consequences the least 
weakness on his part would necessarily entail on himself, on 
his brethren, and on the whole Church in England ? Had he 
not been among the first openly to oppose the king in his 
beastly passion and towering pride ? Had he not seen FF. 
Peyto and Elstow go into exile, and FF. Rich and Risby 
mount the scaffold for the sake of truth and justice ? Had 
he not, like a solicitous father, warned Queen Catherine 
against ''that pestilential teaching of the heretics?" Was 
not his intrepid zeal in her cause the ever-recurring refrain 
of Lyst 's letters to Cromwell ? And now we should believe 
that either puzzled by difficulties or baffled by fear he 
wavered and at last submitted, and that in a cause for which 
he himself had already suffered untold hardships. Indeed, 
he was advanced in years and broken in health, but none the 
less prudent and fearless. Even granting that, as Camm 
thinks, he was ' ' puzzled by the difficulty of a problem before 
him," only a gross misconception of the friar's character 
can lead one to believe that because he was puzzled he gave 
in. No, in that case, he would evidently have demanded a 
written statement of the four articles together with sufficient 
leisure to study and weigh the fourth one, which on account 
of its studied ambiguity at first sight presented difficulties. 
Never, at least, would he have abjured them either singly or 
collectively in their proposed form. 

That his imprisonment after May 8 was less severe than 
before, is by no means certain. In his letter to Cromwell, 
Latimer says only that he has heard this to be the case, and 
does not know ' ' whether through the fault of the sheriff or 
the goaler, or both. ' '^* Then, if he did adjure, why did not 
his enemies make capital out of it for the purpose of dis- 
crediting him in the eyes of the people? Moreover, why 
was he sent back to Newgate at all? Would not the con- 
vent of the Grey Friars, quite subservient to the will of the 
king, have been a far more suitable place to bring him to a 
full submission? Finally, why did not Latimer on the 

54. The letter is quoted by Car»m, Vol. I, p. 312 ; also by Stone, p. 65. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 161 

morning of the martyrdom when Forest publicly branded 
him as an apostate, retaliate by adducing this supposed 
verbal abjuration of his fearless opponent? Such an ex- 
posure would certainly have gone far toward rehabilitating 
the confused bishop, and would have dealt the fair reputa- 
tion of the herioc friar a telling blow in the eyes of the vast 
concourse of people. But Latimer made no mention of it 
whatever. In fact, as we shall see, the manner of his pro- 
cedure during the disputation was entirely that of a man 
straining every nerve to wean his opponent from principles 
which he had never denied, and which he was not likely to 
deny now though the most dreadful tortures and death 
stared him in the face. 

Confronted by this overwhelming evidence, we do not 
hesitate to maintain that the story of Forest's verbal abjura- 
tion of the four articles is wholly "a mere fabrication" of 
his enemies, a base libel on his name and on the Order to 
which he belonged. Dodd must have had chroniclers like 
Hall and Wriothesley in mind when he wrote, ' ' Now laying 
all circumstances together, what several (not all) historians 
have reported, concerning this religious man's behaviour, 
will, I presume, be judged rather calumnies than real 
fact."" 

Like one whose most cherished desire was about to be 
fulfilled, the valiant champion of truth and justice rejoiced 
on learning that in a few days he would be led forth to die 
for the faith. Early Wednesday morning, May 22, Crom- 
well's minions entered the martyr's dungeon. Binding his 
hands and feet, Fr. Marcos tells us, they fastened the aged 
friar to a hurdle and dragged him from Newgate through 
the streets of the city to the suburb Smithfield. What tor- 
tures must have racked his feeble and emaciated frame on 
this last painful journey. How he must have prayed for 
strength when arriving at the place of martyrdom he beheld 
from his bed of pain the singular spectacle before him and 
heard the murmurings of the surging multitude. From 

55. Dodd, Church History of England (Brussels, 1737), Vol. I, p. 237. 



162 FRANCISCANS AND 

Garcias we learn that a proclamation had been issued in the 
city, inviting the people to attend Latimer's sermon, which 
would begin at eight o'clock. Wriothesley, an eyewitness 
of the scene, tells us that above ten thousand citizens had 
assembled to see the final struggle of one whose fearless 
opposition to the king had attracted nation-wide attention.^® 
Within sight of the convent and church of the Grey 
Friars, on a plot of ground closed in by a railing, stood two 
platforms; one of these was supplied with a chair for the 
martyr, while the other had a sort of pulpit, from which 
Latimer was to preach. Near the martyr's platform was 
seen a huge wooden statue of St. Dervel Gadarn (Darvell 
Gatheren). It was so large that eight men could scarcely 
carry it. The people of Llanderfel, in Wales, had held it in 
great veneration on account of the miracles said to have 
been wrought through the intercession of the Saint. An 
old prophecy had it that one day the statue would set fire to 
a forest. Hence, when Ellis Price after confiscating it 
wrote to Cromwell on April 6, 1538, for further instructions, 
the spiteful minister, anxious to ridicule the Catholic vener- 
ation of images, ordered the statue to be brought to London 
and to be used at the burning of Bl. John Forest. * * It is a 
singular fact," Thaddeus observes, ''that those who laughed 
at the prophecy, ridiculed miracles, and denied the truth of 
the Catholic religion, now became, as it were, instruments in 
the hands of God to bring about at least the apparent, if 
not the true, fulfillment of the old prediction. ' '^^ From the 
gibbet erected in another corner of the enclosure, dangled a 
heavy chain, while a store of fagots and straw lay beneath 
it. Above it was fastened a placard bearing in large letters 
the following blasphemous doggerel : 

David Darvell Gatheren, 
As saith the Welshman, 

Fetched outlaws out of Hell; 

56, See Stone, p. 66, on the authority of Garcias, a Spanish chronicler 
and "undoubtedly an eye-witness of the martyrdom." 

57. Thaddeus, p, 67. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 163 

Now he is come with spere and shilde, 
In harness to burn in Smithfielde, 
For in Wales he may not dwell. 

And Forest the Friar, 
That obstinate liar, 

That willfullie shall be dead, 
In his contumacie 
The gospel doth denie, 

The King to be supreme head. 

Near the gate of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, stood an- 
other long platform. This was intended for the Lords of the 
Privy Council and for the city mayor and other men of civil 
authority and influence. 

On reaching Smithfield, the executioners immediately 
loosened their victim from the hurdle and led him to the 
platform, which he was ordered to mount. A solemn hush 
fell on the vast multitude when at a given signal Latimer 
ascended the pulpit and began his defence of royal suprem- 
acy. No doubt, he had prepared his sermon well and left 
no argument untouched that might draw the friar from the 
faith for which he was ready to die. The martyr was aware 
that he would not get a fair hearing; hence during the 
faithless bishop's tirade against the Pope, he prudently 
kept silence.^^ At last, after preaching over an hour, Lati- 
mer turned to him and asked in what state he would die. 
At this Forest arose and with a loud, clear voice replied 
' ' that if an angel should come down from Heaven and show 
him any other thing than he had believed all his life time 
past he would not believe him, and that if his body should be 
cut joint after joint, or member after member, brent, hanged, 
or what pain soever might be done to his body, he would 
never turn from his old sect of this Bishop of Rome. ' ' Then 
facing Latimer he chid him saying, ' ' that seven years agone 
he durst not have made such a sermon for his life. ' '^^ 

But Latimer had long since learned to stifle the voice of 

58. According to Fr. Marcos, Forest tried to speak, but the heretics 
made so much noise that he could not be heard. See Camm, Vol, I, p. 316. 

59. Wriothesley, quoted by Camm, Vol. I, p. 316. 



164 FRANCISCANS AND 

conscience. Hence he coldly disregarded the well-meaning 
rebuke of his former friend. 

*'Dr. Forest," he urged, ''above all I am astonished that 
thou, whom I hold for one of the most learned men in the 
realm, should be accused of being a Papist, and I refuse to 
believe it till I hear it from thine own mouth." 

**Thou has known me for many years, Latimer," the 
friar calmly retorted, ''and I am still more astonished at 
thee, that for the pomps of the world thou hast endangered 
thine own soul. Dost thou not recollect what thou didst 
write me against the emperor, when he was against Rome 
and the Pope, and how thou with all thy voice didst denounce 
them all as heretics ? Recollect how we, the doctors of the 
Church, considered the act and condemned it, and decided 
that those who did it should be excommunicated. What 
wert thou then, Latimer, a Papist or a heretic ? "®® 

"I am no heretic," shouted the bishop, quite discomfited, 
"but rather was I then deceived, and am now enlightened 
with the Holy Spirit, and if thou wilt call upon thy better 
self, thou also wilt receive the light, for thou art now blind. ' ' 

This duplicity and perversion deeply pained the man of 
God. How he longed to reclaim this erring fellow priest, 
who in his mad pursuit after royal preferments had wantonly 
strayed from the path of duty. 

"Oh, Latimer," he pleaded, "I think thou hast other 
things in thy heart ! But since the king has made thee from 
a poor student into a bishop, thou art constrained to say 
this. Open thou thine eyes; take example by that holy 
Bishop of Rochester and the blessed Thomas More, who re- 
nounced the goods of this world, and chose rather to die than 
to lose their immortal souls. ' ' 

"0 God," cried Latimer, at a loss what to say, "how 
great are the snares of the Bishop of Rome, who has kept 
men in darkness for so many years. ' ' 

Evidently, he was engaged in a losing game with his 

60. Here was Latimer's chance to make a count in his own favor by 
referring to the martyr's recent abjuration, had such an abjuration actually 
been made. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 165 

doughty adversary. To save himself and his cause in the 
eyes of the people, he must play a different card. 

''And look thou, Dr. Forest," he hastily continued, 
' ' that thou mayest see the snares and the falsity of his saints, 
they shall bring hither one of the idols of the Bishop of 
Rome." 

At these words, the statue of St. Dervel was brought and 
placed on the platform occupied by the friar. 

''Look, Dr. Forest," repeated Latimer, pointing to the 
image, ' ' this is one of the idols of the Bishop of Rome, and 
for my own part, ' ' he added contemptuously, ' ' I think the 
priests ought to have given the Bishop of Rome half of his 
profits. ' ' 

The blessed martyr could not refrain from laughing. 

"I am not surprised," he said, "that what thou sayest 
should have happened, for the priests are so greedy, that 
they well might invent that, and much more; but do not 
think that the Pope sanctions any such thing." 

Sorely vexed at the obvious discomfiture of Latimer and 
anxious to see Forest in his torments, Cromwell abruptly 
terminated the disputation. 

"My Lord Bishop," he exclaimed, "I think you strive in 
vain with this stubborn man. It would be better to burn 
him." 

Far from intimidating the intrepid friar, the minister's 
words rather served to embolden him. 

"Gentlemen," he said defiantly, "if I were willing to 
sacrifice my soul, it would not have been necessary to come 
to this place. ' ' 

* ' Take him off at once, ' ' commanded Cromwell, pale with 
rage. 

Unspeakable joy thrilled the brave soul of Forest when 
he realized that at last the long looked for moment had come. 
Turning toward the three men still supporting the statue, 
he smiled and said playfully : 

' ' Brethren, I pray ye, do not drop it on me, for my hour 
is not yet come. ' ' 



166 FRANCISCANS AND 

Wholly intent on overcoming the constancy of the valiant 
friar, Latimer once more addressed him. There was a sus- 
picion of sadness and sympathy in his voice that showed 
how his own soul was racked with remorse. 

'' Brother Forest," he pleaded, ''I beseech thee to turn. 
The king will give thee a good living, for I know full well 
that if thou wishest thou art well able to give doctrine to 
great numbers. ' ' 

But compared with the promise of eternal life, this world 
with all its goods had no value in the eyes of the blessed 
martyr. 

''All the treasures of the world, Latimer," he replied, 
* ' will not move me from my will ; but I much desire to speak 
with one of the gentlemen here. ' ' 

Thereupon, the Duke of Norfolk arose to go over to 
where Forest stood. Cromwell, however, intercepted him. 

''My {jord Duke," he commanded, "take your seat 
again ; if he wants to say anything, let him say it out that we 
can all hear." 

Though mortified at this public indignity, the Duke was 
constrained to obey. He well knew that Cromwell was all- 
powerful with the king. When Forest perceived that no one 
would be permitted to speak with him in private, he turned 
quietly toward his enemies and making the sign of the cross, 
exclaimed : 

"Gentlemen, with this body of mine deal as you wish. "^^ 

Provoked beyond measure, Cromwell gives the sign. The 
throng of spectators gaze in breathless silence at the vener- 
able friar, who offers no resistance when the executioners 
drag him down from the scaffold and lead him to the gibbet. 
Heedless of the torments he knows are in store for him, the 
dauntless champion raises his eyes to heaven and declares, 
"Neither fire, nor fagot, nor scaffold shall separate me from 
Thee, Lord."^^ The executioners tear off his outer habit, 
gird him about the waist and under the arms with the iron 

61. The above dialog and details are taken from Garcias's narrative 
as quoted by Stone, pp. 66 seq., and by Camm, Vol. I. pp. 317 seq. 

62. Bourchier, p. 48. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 167 

chain^^ that dangles from the gibbet, and draw him upwards, 
so that he hangs suspended over the straw and fagots. 
These they now ignite, a dense volume of smoke ascends, and 
soon the inhuman torture begins. Tongues of fire lick the 
martyr's feet. Racked with pain, he involuntarily raises 
them and clutches the scaffold ; but only for a moment ; and 
as if repenting of the act, he willingly lets go his hold and 
suffers the flames to do their work. Fed with chips hewn 
from the statue of St. Dervel, the heat becomes well-nigh 
unbearable, while the heartless executioners grasp their hal- 
berts and with their aid bring the martyr into a swinging 
motion. A strong wind sweeps over Smithfield and fans 
the flames to one side, so that they reach only his lov/er ex- 
tremities. Though untold agony convulses the martyr's 
body, his soul is rapt in sweet communion with Him who 
died on the cross to save mankind. Above the crackling of 
the fire and the low murmurs of the bystanders, he is heard 
praying for strength and perseverance; beating his breast 
with his hands, he cries, ^ ' In the shadow of thy wings I will 
trust, until iniquity pass away. ' ' 

Two hours have now elapsed. Still dangling from the 
gibbet, oppressed by the scorching heat and smoke, the man 
of God is patiently waiting for death to end his fearful suffer- 
ings. The spectators are filled, some with disgust at the 
obstinate friar, many with sympathy for him. At last, the 
executioners approach the gibbet and loosen its supports, so 
that it crashes with its burden into the greedy flames. At 
this, the heroic martyr prays aloud, ''In thee, Lord, have 
I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy 
justice. Bow down thy ear to me: make haste to deliver 
me." Amid the crackling of the flames, his prayers grow 
fainter and fainter. Then a last, "Into thy hands I com- 
es. Thaddeus, p. 69. Sander (ed. 1585, p. 90 — ed. 1690, p. 243) says 
that two chains were fastened round the martyr's arms. Bourchier (p. 49) 
speaks only of one chain, which was secured round his waist (circa ven- 
trem). "One would like to think," remarks Camm (p, 320), "that the 
martyr was hung by the middle, in order that he might be the sooner 
suffocated, but it is to be feared that the motive was to make him look 
ridiculous." 



168 FRANCISCANS AND 

mend my spirit ' ' — the martyr 's voice is heard no more^* — ^his 
beautiful soul freed from its prison of clay has ascended to 
the mansions of unending bliss to receive the martyr 's crown 
and to join the triumphant ranks of those ''who have de- 
spised the life of the world, and have arrived at the reward 
of the kingdom, and have washed their garments in the blood 
of the Lamb." 

It is related that while Bl. John Forest was in the midst 
of his torments, a snow white dove was seen fluttering about 
the gibbet and settling at last on the head of the martyr. 
Furthermore, we are told, the Saint 's right hand, mouth and 
tongue remained untouched by the fire, ''as if God," re- 
marks Thaddeus, "would thus show his approval of all he 
had written and spoken in defence of the Faith. ' '^^ Nothing 
certain is known regarding the whereabouts of the martyr's 
relics. Father Thaddeus thinks it is "most probable that 
the mortal remains of Father Forest still lie hidden at 
Smithfield, near the corner of St. Bartholomew's Hospital 
opposite the gate of the ancient priory, ' '^^ where, according 
to Garcias, they were interred on the day of his glorious 
martyrdom. Already in 1638, Fr. Arturus a Monasterio 
thus commemorated him in his Franciscan Martyrology : 
"At London, in England, memory of Blessed John Forest, 
an apostolic man and martyr, who, by order of Henry VIII, 
King of England, was cast into prison for the defence of the 
Catholic Faith, and after a cruel imprisonment, sentenced 
to death ; being suspended on a gibbet, a slow fire was lighted 
at his feet and he was inhumanly roasted, until at length, 
being all consumed by the fire, he went up to heaven vic- 
torious." On December 9, 1886, Pope Leo XIII declared 
him blessed together with the Tertiary Martyr Thomas More 
and fifty-two others, who between the years 1535 and 1583 
shed their blood in England in defence of the faith. The 
feast of Bl. John Forest is celebrated annually on May 22, 
throughout the Franciscan Order. 

64. Thaddeus, p. 70. 

65. Thaddeus, p. 71. See also Gu6rin, Le Palmier S&raphique, Vol. 
V, p. 470. 

66. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol." VIII, p. 464, 



CHAPTER X 

DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, 1538-1547 

Renewed measures against the Franciscans — Three martyrs : 
FF. Antony Brown, John Waire, and Hemmysley — The 
Conventual friars — Their poverty — During the first 
years of the religious upheaval — The royal visitors — 
Wholesale rohhery and vandalism — Subsequent lot of 
the Conventual houses and of the ejected friars. 

Like Blessed John Forest, a number of his fellow friars, 
whose detention in the Conventual houses had also become 
less severe, were again using their influence in behalf of 
papal supremacy. Hence the spies of Cromwell found much 
to report against them, so that the hatred of their enemies 
was enkindled anew, and Henry determined to wreak fear- 
ful vengeance on these obstinate ' ' sowers of sedition. ' ' We 
have already seen how, in consequence, three Franciscans 
were thrown into prison in 1537 and died there as martyrs 
of the faith. Little, however, is known regarding the sub- 
sequent fate of the other members of the suppressed prov- 
ince. From the scanty records available, we may safely 
conclude that they were again hunted down like criminals 
and subjected to every sort of indignity. While some suc- 
ceeded in either remaining concealed or in leaving the coun- 
try, others fell into the hands of their pursuers and were 
thrown into loathsome dungeons, where shut off from the 
outer world they spent months and years amid untold suf- 
ferings, until death at last came to their relief. Between 
1538 and 1547, the year of Henry's tragic end, the martyr- 
dom of only three Franciscans has been recorded. 

On August 4, 1538, four months after the glorious death 
of Bl. John Forest, the Duke of Norfolk informed Cromwell 

169 



170 FRANCISCANS AND 

that the justices of assize at Norwich had examined Fr. 
Antony Brown, who once belonged to the Greenwich com- 
munity and who was now living as a hermit. The valiant 
friar, we learn, wrote out his own confession, and refusing 
to alter his views on papal supremacy, he was found guilty 
of high treason and condemned to death. His execution, 
however, was delayed for ten days, because it was thought 
' ' convenient that a sermon should be made by the bishop of 
Norwich, as was by the bishop of Worcester at the execution 
of Forest." In the interval, nothing was left undone to 
shake the constancy of Fr. Antony. ''This afternoon," 
writes the duke, "we so handled the said friar that we 
brought him to this point, that he would not stick upon the 
authority of the bishop of Rome to be supreme head of the 
Church,^ but in no wise could we bring him from the opinion 
that the king ought not to be supreme head of the Church, 
saying that no temporal prince was capax of that name and 
authority." In vain did the bishop of Norwich and Dr. 
Call, a Conventual friar, argue with him. Accordingly, 
"we have delivered him," continues Norfolk, "to the sheriff 
to be carried to the goal and there to suffer according to his 
foolish doings upon Friday next. Before his death the said 
bishop shall make such a sermon as we trust shall be to the 
king's highness contentation and apparent to the people 
(who, we think, will be there in great number) that this 
unhappy foolish friar is well worthy to suffer and that his 
opinions be false and untrue. My Lord," he adds, "the 
cause of the sending of this man in so great haste unto you is 
because that if the king's majesty and you shall think it 
convenient to have him to be brought to the Tower, there 
to be more straightly examined and to be put to torture, you 
may despatch this bearer or some other with command to 
the sheriff accordingly, so that the same may be with him at 
Norwich by Friday at ten o'clock." Again the bishop 
sought to win Fr. Antony over to the king's side. But his 

1. This is probably to signify, as Spillmann remarks, tliat he did not 
successfully defend the doctrine of papal supremacy. See Katholikenver- 
folgung in England, Part I, p. 204, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 171 

efforts proved fruitless. The servant* of God remained firm 
to the end. Particulars regarding his martyrdom have not 
come down to us, but ' ' there can be little doubt, ' ' says Gas- 
quet, "that the sentence of death was carried out on Friday, 
August 9, 1538.2 

A year later, on July 8, another Franciscan, Fr. John 
Waire (Maire) suffered martyrdom at St. Thomas Water- 
ings in Southwark. With him were executed Griffith Clark, 
a secular priest and vicar of Wandsworth, also the latter 's 
curate and his servant. Details of their martj^rdom, how- 
ever, have not been recorded. ' ' John Stow says, he had not 
seen the indictment ; but Catholic writers, who are particu- 
larly inquisitive concerning such matters, all agree they 
suffered for denying the king 's supremacy ; this year and the 
next being remarkable for that sort of executions."^ 

The last Observant friar who is known to have died for 
the faith before the demise of Henry VIII we find commemo- 
rated in Grey Friars Chronicle under the year 1546 ; viz., 
''And the xvi. day of Julii was burned in Smythfelde for 
grett herrysy. . . . Hemmysley a priest, wyche was an 
Obesruand freere of Richmond."* 

It is time that we recount the history of the Conventual 
friars during these first years of the conflict. Approxi- 
mately, they were at the time about 800 in number,^ dis- 
tributed over some 70 houses.^ Although they had not 

2. Gasquet, Henry VJII and the English Monasteries, Vol. II, pj> 
251 seq. 

3. Dodd, Church History of England, Vol. I, p. 214 ; Hope, Franciscan 
Martyrs in England, p. 16; Stone, Faithfill Unto Death, p. 81; Thaddeus. 
The Franciscans in England, p. 17. Fr. Waire's name is on the list of 
English martyrs whose cause of beatification has been introduced. Se« 
Acta Minorum, Vol. VI (1887), pp. 49 seq. 

4. Grey Friars Chronicle in Monitnicnta Franciscana, Vol. II, p. 211. 

5. This estimate is based on Gasquet (Henry VIII .... Monasteries, 
Vol. II, p. 241), who reckons eleven friars for each convent. 

6. It is very probable that, as Thaddeus states (The Franciscans iw- 
England, p. 15), the English Province numbered 73 friaries at the time of 
the Dissolution. Gasquet, however, in his English Monastic Life (pp. 
251-318), accounts for only 64 houses. Whence this discrepancy? In th<» 
first place, Gasquet mentions only those houses that were situated in Eng- 
land proper, omitting, therefore, the four in Scotland ; to wit, Dumfries. 
Dundee, Haddington, Roxburgh. Furthermore, he fails to mention six 
others ; namely, Berwick, Brougham, Ludlow, Penrith, Stoke. Walsingham, 
which were located in England proper and, according to Parkinson (Antiqui- 
ties of the English Franciscans, Part II, passim), are accounted for by 



172 FEANCISCANS AND 

formally joined the Observant reform, still it is quite safe to 
assert that they were favorably disposed toward it. We 
know, for instance, that already in 1502 they had changed 
their habit for the one adopted by their reformed brethren."^ 
As to the vow of poverty, which constituted the essential 
difference betwen the Observantine and the Conventual body 
in the Order, they practically belonged to the former ; for, 
as Little says, ' ' from the smallness of the lands held by the 
friars and from the smallness of their regular incomes from 
other sources, it may be inferred that they depended for 
their livelihood mainly on voluntary and casual alms (in- 
cluding legacies), and this inference is supported by the 
evidence of the straits to which the friars were reduced 
whenever for any reason the supply of alms was cut off or 
diminished."^ Again the same author writes, ''The reply 
of the guardian of the Grey Friars of Coventry to the royal 
commissioners in 1535 might truthfully have been said by 
most of his fellow guardians : 'Friar John Stafford, guardian 
of the same house, being examined on oath, saj^s that they 
have no lands nor tenements nor other possessions, nor reve- 
nues spiritual or temporal of any yearly value, but only 
"limitations" in the country and uncertain charitable gifts 
of the people.' "^ 

That the Conventuals, in the beginning of the religious 
upheaval, were less conspicuous than their brethren of the 
Observance in opposing the policy of Henry VIII, must not 
pass for a sign that they were less devoted to the cause of 
truth and justice. There is every reason to believe that 
when the question of papal supremac}^ came to a head, they 
as a body were staunch in their allegiance to the Holy See. 
A few of their number, indeed, are known to have sympa- 
thized to some extent with the rebellious king's measures. 

such historians as Wadding, Leland, Mason and Davenport. This fact, it 
seems, induced Thaddeus to take them up in his list of the friaries. Finally, 
Gasquet adds one house, Haverford East, which Thaddeus does not mention. 

7. Little, Studies in English Franciscan History, p. 61, quoting a 
London Chronicle edited by Kingsford, 

8. Little, ibidem, p. 27. 

9. Little, ibidem, p. 46. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 173 

Thus Fr. Thomas Chapman, guardian of the London con- 
vent, assured Cromwell that some of his community were 
willing to change their habits as soon as ordered to do so, 
and at the same time he gave the minister the names of such 
as had of late supported Fr. John Forest with alms.^° 
Again, as stated above. Dr. Call defended the king's suprem- 
acy at the trial of Fr. Antony Brown. As to Fr. Alexander 
Barklay, it was perhaps this same policy of submission to the 
royal will that safeguarded his remaining in England till 
his death in 1552, although previously he had been denounced 
by the king's men as doing ''much hurt in Cornwall and 
Devonshire both with open preaching and private communi- 
cations. ' ' It was probably in the summer of 1538, after the 
dissolution of the friaries, that Cromwell one day met him 
near St. Paul's cemetery. *'Yea," he said, on seeing the 
friar in his habit, ''will not that cowl of yours be left off 
yet ? And, if I hear by one o 'clock that this apparel be not 
changed, thou shalt be hanged immediately for example of 
all others. "^^ How many more of the Conventuals in this 
way at last succumbed under the pressure of threat and 
promise, it is impossible to determine. 

On the other hand, we know of some who, like the Observ- 
ants, refused to submit and underwent great hardships 
for conscience sake. This was owing perhaps to the fact 
that in the summer of 1534, as we have heard, they were 
compelled to receive many of the expelled Observants into 
their houses, and thus had occasion to become more inti- 
mately acquainted with their reformed brethren. Many, 
no doubt, admired them for their virtues and gradually 
imbibed their principles and ideals, so that in time they, too, 
became unflinching supporters of papal supremacy. Park- 
inson tells us that the Conventual community at Ware stren- 
uously denounced the king's attitude toward the Pope, and 
that for this reason it was dissolved as early as 1534." 

10. Camm, Lives of the English Martyrs, Vol. — , p. 297. 

11. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries (popular edition, 1906), 
p. 144, footnote. See also Encyclopedia Britannioa, Vol. Ill, p. 317. 

12. Parkinson, Part II, p. 12. 



174 FRANCISCANS AND 

Others, we find, were cast into prison for being too out- 
spoken in their defence of the Holy See. When FF. John 
Hunt and Robert Ellis had to leave their convent, they were 
asked whether they would again wear the habit ; whereupon 
"they both said they would not for a year or two and by 
that time perchance there would be another change. ' ' For 
this reply they were imprisoned. ^^ Again, Fr. William 
Petty, who belonged to the Jersey community, was found 
guilty of high treason and condemned to death for main- 
taining the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. Writing to 
Cromwell for instructions regarding this friar's execution, 
Southwell declares, ''Petty is subtly witted as he is in- 
genious, and hath as pleasant instrument for the utterance 
of his cankered heart as I have heard. ' '^* At Reading, the 
members of the community were mostly men of advanced 
age. The guardian, Fr. Peter Lawrence, was a personal 
friend of Dr. London, the royal commissioner, who in Sep- 
tember, 1538, confiscated the convent, but allowed the friars 
to remain provided they would not wear the habit. For a 
time, it seems, they complied, trusting perhaps, like so many 
others at the time, that after a few years the king would 
relent or die. A year later, however, in November, the 
guardian together with Fr. Giles Coventry, one of the com- 
munity, are found on the list of prisoners in the Tower.^^ 

During the suppression of the lesser monasteries, in 1535 
and 1536, the Conventual houses had not been molested, 
since, as Parkinson says regarding the one at Coventry, 
''there was nothing to be got by their ruin, forasmuch as 
they had no endowment of lands, etc. ' '^® After the north- 
ern rising, however, when motives of revenge were added to 
those of avarice, the Conventual houses with all that be- 
longed to them were appropriated by the crown. Now it 
became manifest how the friars were practicing the vow of 
poverty. Parkinson's account which is based on Speed, 

13. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. II, p. 261, footnote. 

14. Gasquet, Ibidem, p. 264. 

15. Gasquet, Ibidem, pp. 265, 336. 

16. Parkinson, Part II, p. 34. 



THE PKOTESTANT REVOLUTION 175 

Leland, and Weever, and Wright's Suppression of the 
Monasteries f which contains 142 letters ^^ written by the 
king's officials immediately after their visit to the religious 
houses, show clearly that the great majority of the Con- 
ventual friaries had little or no valuation. Indeed, many 
are not even mentioned, while others are recorded as having 
''no rents" — ''no lands" — "no value." Regarding landed 
endowments apart from the sites of the friaries. Little con- 
tends that they were "small in amount, of recent origin, 
confined to a few houses, and devoted to special services. ' '^® 
"The friars had nothing in propriety, nor in common," 
writes Fuller, "but being mendicants, begged all their sub- 
sistence from the charity of others. True it is they had 
cells or houses to dwell in, or rather to hide themselves in. 
So the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests ; 
but all this went for nothing, seeing that they had no means 
belonging thereunto. It will be objected that many con- 
vents of friars had large and ample revenues, as it will ap- 
pear by perusing the Catalogue in Speed's tables. I have 
nothing to return in answer hereunto, save only that . . . 
these additions of lands unto them are of a later date, and, 
believe it, not of their seeking, but their benefactors casting 
upon them."^^ 

A few figures will show how well these words apply to 
the Conventual friars. At the time of the suppression, their 
annual revenues at Walsingham, Bedford, and Aylesbury 
were a little over £3. After visiting the friars at Aylesbury, 
John London wrote to Cromwell, ' ' I found them very poor 
and in debt, their ornaments very coarse, and very little 
stuff of household. ' ' The largest of their friaries, according 

17. The greater portion of these letters, Wright assures his readers, 
are reprints from a volume in the Cottonian Library In the British Museum. 
The author's purpose in publishing these letters was to show, as he him- 
self says, "the facility with which the inmates of the monasteries, at the 
time of their dissolution, confessed to vices from the very name of which 
our imagination recoils." Whatever truth there may have been in the 
charges proferred by the royal visitors against the religious, it Is a strik- 
ing fact that in all the letters not a single instance occurs where the sons 
of St. Francis are accused of leading lives unworthy of their sacred calling. 

18. Little, p. 23. 

19. Parkinson, preface to Part II, p. Iv. 



176 FRANCISCANS AND 

to Leland, was the one at Northampton ; and yet the yearly 
income here was only £6 17s. 5d. The house at Bridgenorth 
was rated at £4 per annum. On surrendering it, the friars 
declared *Hhat they were not able to live ; for the charity of 
the people was so small that in three years they had not 
received in alms in ready money the sum of ten shillings a 
year, and they lived only by a service that they had in the 
town in a chapel on the bridge. "^^ At Coventry, according 
to Dugdale, ''they had no lands, nor other possessions, 
spiritual or temporal, but only liberty in. the country to re- 
ceive the charity of good people. ''^^ At Boston, the royal 
agent found the four houses of friars, one of which belonged 
to the Conventuals, very poor and the inmates in great need. 
In the Conventual friary at Lincoln, he found nothing 
worth mentioning save the conduit which the mayor and the 
aldermen asked to have turned into public use. Regarding 
their house at Gloucester, the commissioner reported, ' ' The 
Gray Friars is a goodly house, much of it newly built, 
especially the church, choir, and dormitory; the rest small 
lodgings; divers leases out for years of lodgings and gar- 
dens; no lead but a conduit and small gutters." At Staf- 
ford, they had *'the choir leaded and a chapel, small imple- 
ments, no plate but a chalice and six sponys (spoons ?), in 
rents 6s. 4d.," while at Shrewsbury were found *'a proper 
house, small implements, no jewels but a plate cross (of) 
silver, and a little chalice of little value ; no rents but their 
house and about three or four acres of arable land lying 
to it."" 

Parkinson brings the copy of an instrument to which, in 
October, 1539, friars of Coventry and Stamford affixed their 
names, thereby surrendering the convent to the crown.^^ 
The document is interesting inasfar as it shows what a 



20. Hope, Franciscan Martyrs in England, pp. 65 seq. 

21. Parkinson, Part II, p. 34. From this it would seem that the Con- 
ventuals, in strict keeping of the Rule of St. Francis, were wont to go on 
quest for their daily subsistence. 

22. Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries, pp. 192, 199, 204, 205. 

23. Parkinson, Part II, pp. 35, 27. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 177 

comedy of legal formalities were gone through to give the 
proceedings the semblance of justice. 

For as much as we the warden and friars of the house of St. 
Francis in Coventry, in the county of Warwick, commonly called the 
Grey Friars in Coventry, do profoundly consider, that the perfec- 
tion of Christian living does not consist in dumb ceremonies, wear- 
ing of a grey coat,2'i disguising ourselves after strange fashions, 
*^doking, nodding, and becking," in girding ourselves with a girdle 
full of knots, and other like papistical ceremonies, wherein we had 
been most principally practiced and misled in times past; but the 
very true way to please God, and to live a true Christian man, with- 
out all hypocrisy and feigned dissimulation, is sincerely declared unto 
us by our Master Christ, his Evangelists, and Apostles : being minded 
hereafter to follow the same, conforming ourselves unto the will and 
pleasure of our supreme head under God on earth, the King's majesty, 
and not to follow henceforth the superstitious traditions of any foreign 
potentate or peer; with mutual assent and consent,25 do surrender 
and yield up into the hands of the same all our said house of Saint 
Francis, Grey Friars, in Coventry, with all the lands,26 tenements, 
gardens, meadows, waters, pondiards, feedings, pastures, commens, 
rents, reversions, and all other our interest, rights, or titles, apper- 
taining unto the same. Most humbly beseeching his most noble grace 
to dispose of us, and of the same, as best shall stand with his most 
gracious pleasure: and further freely to grant unto every one of us 
his license under writing and seal to change our habits into secular 
fashion and to receive such manner of livings as other secular priests 
commonly be preferred unto. And we all faithfully shall pray unto 
almighty God long to preserve his most noble grace with increase of 
much felicity and honor. And, in witness of all and singular the 
premises, we the said warden and convent of the Grey Friars in 
Coventry to these presences have put our convent seal, the fifth 
day of October, in the thirtieth year of the reign of our most sovereign 
lord King Henry the Eighth, or anno 1539. 

Such were the instruments which the commissioners laid 
before the friars. Referring to the one just adduced, Gas- 

24. Here Parkinson remarks, "The friars were not such fools as to 
have, at any time, believed that Christian perfection consists in dumb 
ceremonies, or in any outward dress ; but this was said for them." 

25. Parkinson observes that Dugdale suggested the term forced in 
place of mutual assent and consent. 

26. "This is for form's sake," comments Parkinson ; "for it was well 
known that the friars there had no lands, tenements, etc., whatever is said 
in the form." The instruments had been formulated by the commissioners 
to suit all emergencies. 



178 FRANCISCANS AND 

quet observes, ''Although the document has often been 
pointed to as proof that the religious themselves confessed 
the iniquity of their lives, no reasonable man can doubt 
that, like other so-called 'confessions,' this was a ready- 
made document. "^^ To throw dust in the eyes of the peo- 
ple, they were made to read as if the friars surrendered 
voluntarily. The fact is, however, they were morally forced 
to sign, being told that, whether they did so or not, their 
possessions by an act of parliament already belonged to the 
king ; that non-compliance would serve only to make matters 
worse; and that it would, therefore, be wisest for them to 
make a virtue of necessity and do the king's bidding.^^ 

So radical and thoroughgoing was the procedure of 
Richard Ingworth and his fellows that within a twelve- 
month all the friaries of the Conventuals were in the hands 
of the king. After turning out the helpless friars, the com- 
missioners forthwith set about dismantling the buildings of 
whatever might realize a few shillings for the royal coffers. 
Thereupon, the sites were either sold or leased for a mere 
pittance. It is touching to read how wantonly they de- 
spoiled the friaries at Stafford and Litchfield.^^ The mis- 
sals, linens, and sacred vestments in the sacristy, the cruci- 
fixes, candlesticks, statues, pews in the church and choir, 
the furniture in the friary, yes even the cooking utensils in 
the kitchen and buttery — ^everything that was not thought 
worth while forwarding to headquarters, was offered for 
sale, the friars themselves in some instances becoming the 
purchasers. Thus we find, for instance, that the guardian 
of Stafford bought two brass pots and Fr. Wood one of the 
sacred vestments. 

Only meager accounts have come down to us as to the 
eventual fate of the buildings. The friary at Yarmouth 
with other lands was given to Cromwell.^^ As a rule, their 



27. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. II, p. 268. 

28. See Parkinson, Part II, p. 27, quoting Fuller. 

29. See Wright, pp. 266-278, where he brings the accounts of John 
Scudamore regarding the sale of certain friaries. 

30. Little, p. 225. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 179 

new owners either let them fall to ruin, or had them wan- 
tonly defaced and torn down, or had them converted to pro- 
fane uses. Thus, when Parkinson wrote, the belfry of the 
friars* church at Coventry was used as a barn. The author 
says that he himself had seen a tasker threshing in it.^^ In 
some instances, the houses were obtained by the city for 
public use. Thus, as we have heard, the mayor and alder- 
men bartered for the conduit of the Lincoln friary. At 
Grimsby, the city officials desired half of the house "to 
make of it a common house of ordnance and other neces- 
saries for the defence of the king's enemies if need be," 
because it stood "very well for the purpose, near the water 
and open to the sea." At Worcester, the friary was sold 
to the city, after the superfluous buildings had been de- 
molished. At Reading, the church was successively used by 
the city as a town-hall, a workhouse, and a jail.^- 

Only of the houses at London and Oxford have interest- 
ing details been transmitted to posterity. The beautiful 
church of St. Francis in London, on the north side of New- 
gate Street, that harbored the tombs of more than six 
hundred persons of royalty and distinction, was at first 
used as a wine store. Seven years later, on January 3, the 
king had the church reopened, wishing to found a new 
parish to be known as Christ Church. But the value of 
the property was so small that to support the parish he 
was constrained to add to it St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 
Smithfield, the churches of St. Nicholas and St. Evin and as 
much of St. Pulcher's as lay within Newgate, together with 
an annual grant of five hundred marks in land. During 
the great London Fire, in 1666, the church was destroyed. 
It w^as subsequently rebuilt on the site where the choir of 
the old church stood.^^ In 1552, EdAvard VI had the con- 
vent buildings repaired and turned over to the city to be 
used as an orphanage and school, which for many years 

31. Parkinson, Part II, p. 36. 

32. Gasquet, Henri/ VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. II, pp. 273 seq. 

33. Grey Friars Chronicle, pp. 213, 216; Parkinson, Part II, p. 2; 
Camm, p. 290, footnote. 



180 FRANCISCANS AND 

after was known as Christ Hospital or Blue Coat School. 
A part of the wall belonging at one time to the library is 
thought to be the only fragment left of the ancient friary.^* 

At Oxford, the stately buildings with their spacious gar- 
den and orchard were leased for a paltry sum, which was 
paid to the king till the year 1545, when he sold the prem- 
ises. ' ' Then down went the trees, ' ' writes Wood, ' ' and the 
grass plots were everywhere trodden out of all form; nay, 
the church itself was entirely pulled down, and the stones 
and statues, and the very monuments of the dead escaped 
not, but were wholly demolished, taken away, and disposed 
of, for any use that could make the sale of them bring a 
penny." The same historian informs us that when he was 
a student at Oxford, about the middle of the seventeenth 
century, a little old building could still be seen, which it 
was said had once been the study of FF. Roger Bacon and 
Thomas Bungey.^^ 

More deplorable was the subsequent lot of the ejected 
friars. The only ones known to have obtained pensions 
were Fr. Thomas Chapman, guardian of London, and his 
fellow guardian of York. "The rest," Gasquet writes, 
* ' were dismissed from their houses with some small gratuity, 
generally only a few shillings, and left to provide for them- 
selves. ' '^^ They wandered about from place to place, home- 
less and penniless, entirely dependent on the charity of the 
people. But these were poor themselves, owing to frequent 
taxations, and moreover dared not show too much favor and 
openly offer protection to those on whom the hand of the 
king had fallen so heavily. Of the ejected friars, none suf- 
fered greater hardships than the priests. ''Only one or 
two individuals, ' ' says Gasquet, ' ' were granted any pension 
for their support. As a rule a few shillings (on an average 
apparently about five shillings) was delivered to each one 

34. Parkinson, Part II, p. 7 ; Staunton, The Great Schools of England, 
pp. 442-462; Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XIV, p. 844. 

35. Parkinson, Part II, pp. 25^ seq. ; Leon. Aureole Seraphique, Engl, 
transl., Vol. IV, p. 352, footnote. — Anthony Wood was born in 1632 and 
died in 1695. 

36. Gasquet, Henry VIII .... Monasteries, Vol. II, p. 454. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 181 

on being turned out into the world to find their own living 
as best they might. Even when they secured what is known 
as a ' capacity ' — that is, permission to act as one of the 
secular clergy — employment was by no means easy to be 
obtained. The bishops were no lovers of the wandering 
friars, and the destruction of so many churches diminished 
the possibility of obtaining any cure of souls, even had they 
been willing to present them to any."^^ Hence we hear 
Richard Ingworth pleading on their behalf with Cromwell. 
* ' They are very poor, ' ' he writes to the minister, ' ' and can 
have little service without their capacities. The bishops and 
curates are very hard to them, without they have their 
capacities. ' '^^ On another occasion, the same commissioner 
informs Cromwell, ' ' I have written to divers of the bishops 
and with divers I have spoken to license them (the friars) 
till after Michaelmas, and at that time I have promised to 
send their license to certain places where they shall have 
them free, for the most part of them have no penny to pay 
for the charge of them. ' '^^ 

To what measures individuals would resort in their ex- 
treme need, we learn from the case of Fr. Richard Sharpe. 
Unable to procure an instrument that would commend him 
to some bishop and legalize his acting as priest, he borrowed 
the one which his confrere, Fr. John Young, had obtained. 
Of this he made a copy in his own name and, as may be sup- 
posed, presented it to some bishop. But the forgery was 
discovered and, in April, 1539, Fr. Sharpe was arraigned 
for treason and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quar- 
tered. For some reason or other, the sentence was not 
carried out and later the friar was set at liberty.*^ 

Another circumstance that caused the ejected friars 
great anguish of soul was the fact that government spies 
were closely watching their every movement. Any word or 
act of theirs that could be interpreted as a sign of dissatis- 

37. Gasquet, Ibidem, p. 273. 

38. Wright, p. 193. 

39. Wright, p. 210. 

40. Gasquet, Ibidem, p. 471. 



182 FRANCISCANS AND 

faction with the late proceedings against them, was im- 
mediately reported to headquarters. In consequence, the 
poor friars knew not whom to trust nor whither to turn for 
comfort and relief. Thus, in the course of time, their condi- 
tion grew from bad to worse. That in the end some of the 
number gave way under the pressure of want and distress 
and went over to the king's side, is not to be wondered at. 
On the other hand, it is safe to say that the great majority 
remained true to their faith and calling and gradually suc- 
ceeded in leaving their native land for Ireland, Scotland, 
and Flanders, where, since 1534, many of their reformed 
brethren of the Observance had found a hearty welcome. 



CHAPTER XI 

DIVINE RETRIBUTION, 1547-1558 

Last days of Henry VIII — Remorse and despair — His d^eath 
— The prophecy of Fr. Peyto fulfilled — Reign of Edward 
VI — Efforts to introduce Lutheranism — Further con- 
fiscation and spoliation of religious houses — The *^Funus 
Scoti et Scotistainim" at Oxford — Reign of Mary the 
Catholic — England reunited with the Church of Rome — 
Franciscans again at Greenwich, London, and South- 
ampton — Their activity and influence — Death of the 
queen. 

If ever an English monarch had to taste the bitter fruits 
of a life spent in sin and crime and was made to realize in 
his own person how ''heavy lies the head that wears a 
crown," it was Henry VIII, during the last years of his 
inglorious reign. "Widespread dissatisfaction, pauperism, 
immorality, and religious indifferentism among the lower 
classes, who menacingly clamored for the charitable minis- 
trations of the ousted monks and friars ; bitter discord and 
senseless wrangling on matters of doctrine among the 
clergy,^ who railed at one another and chafed under the yoke 
of the Six Articles ; rivalries and intrigues among the cour- 
tiers,^ who were only waiting for the death of their royal 
patron to satisfy their own greed and ambitious designs; 
strained relations and open hostilities with foreign powers, 

1. In his last speech in parliament on religion, Henry VIII deeply 
lamented the dissensions among the clergy. See Liugard, History of Eng- 
land, Vol. V, pp. 99 seq. In his Church History of England, Vol. I, pp. 
315 seq., Dodd brings a copy of this speech. 

2. Cromwell had betrayed his trust both as minister and as vicar 
general. On June 10, 1540, he was arrested for embezzling and misapply- 
ing royal funds and subjected to the bill of attainder, "a most iniquitous 
measure, but of which he had no right to complain, as he had been the 
first to employ it against others." In vain he appealed to the King for 
mercy. No one dared to raise a voice in his defence, and on July 28, he 
was beheaded, Lingard, pp. 70 seq. 

183 



184 FRANCISCANS AND 

who while resenting Henry's religious and political despo- 
tism, sought to profit by his present helplessness; marital 
troubles within the royal household, aggravated by the 
bodily ailments of the royal voluptuary: — such was the 
gloom and desolation that followed in the wake of that dread- 
ful storm which Henry's unbridled passions had conjured 
up against the Church in England. 

What made his declining years most miserable were the- 
pangs of remorse that harrowed his guilty soul. Realizing 
that he was at variance with Protestants as well as Cath- 
olics and convinced in his heart that the latter alone pos- 
sessed the true and saving faith, the unhappy king was 
anxious to become reconciled to the Church. Accordingly, 
as early as 1641, he sent Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Win- 
chester, to the diet of Ratisbon, which Charles V had sum- 
moned with the Pope 's sanction for the purpose of restoring 
religious unity in Europe. Though the English bishop and 
the German Emperor did all in their power to realize the 
wish of Henry YIII, nothing in the end came of it, ''be- 
cause," as Sander puts it, "he (Henry) prized the glory of 
men higher than the glory of God." In the autum of 1546, 
six months before his death, the English king took another 
step in this direction. Pressed by serious illness from which 
he had little hope of recovering, and harassed by qualms of 
conscience for having severed the bond of Church unity, he 
began to consult privately with some bishops as to how he 
might be reconciled to the Apostolic See and thereby also 
with the Christian nations. For obvious reasons, however, 
the selfish dignitaries flattered him declaring that by divine 
inspiration he had renounced the primacy of the Pope, and 
that he had nothing to fear since his action had been fully 
sanctioned by parliament. Bishop Gardiner alone wa^ sin- 
cere ; he suggested that Henry lay the affair before parlia- 
ment ; or, should time not allow this, that he at least commit 
his wishes to writing, assuring him that God would taKe 
his good will for the deed. But Gardiner's efforts proved 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 185 

unavailing against the flattery and deceit of the royal 
sycophants.^ 

Finally, after months of bodily suffering and mental 
anguish, the woful end came. Black despair, like a hideous 
specter, haunted the last hours of the refractory king. 
Lying helpless on his bed of pain, and staring wildly into 
the darker recesses of the room, he would groan, ' ' Monks ! 
monks!"* On January 28, 1547, when told that his last 
moment had come, he became frantic with fear and despair. 
Calling for a cup of wine, he turned feebly to one of the 
attendants and exclaimed, ' ' All is lost ! ' ' then he sank back 
on his pillow and expired.^ 

On February 14, the corpse was conveyed from West- 
minster to Windsor castle for burial. On this occasion, the 
prophecy of Fr. William Peyto, made fourteen years before 
in the friary church of Greenwich, was literally fulfilled. 
The cortege halted for the night at the monastery of Syon. 
During the journey, owing perhaps to the jogging of the 
chariot, the coffin was damaged and the corpse injured. 
The next morning, a pool of blood was found on the pave- 
ment of the church where the remains had been placed. To 
repair the damage, embalmers and plumbers were sum- 
moned. They were about to begin their work, when '' sud- 
denly was there found among their legs a dog, lapping and 
licking up the king's blood, as chanced to King Achab, be- 
fore specified. This chance one William Consell reported, 
saying he was there present, and with much ado drove away 
the said dog.^ Such was the horrible end of Henry VIII, 
whom Stubbs, the Anglican bishop and historian, charac- 
terizes as a ''strong, high-spirited, ruthless, disappointed, 

3. Sander, De Origine ac Progressu Schismatis Anglicani, ed. 1585, 
pp. 97 seq., 102 seq. ; ed. 1690, pp. 287 seq., 312 seq. 

4. Strickland, Lives oj the Queens o/ England, Vol. Ill, p. 256, on the 
authority of Harpsfield. 

5. Sander, ed. 1585, p. 105 ; ed. 1690, p. 323. 

6. Harpsfield, quoted by Hope, Franciscan Martyrs in England, p. 68. 
See also Strickland, p. 260, quoting a contemporary document. According 
to Hall, this incident occurred in the room where Henry died. See Hope, 
p. 67. 



186 FEANCISCANS AND 

solitary creature ; a thing to hate or to pity or to smile at, 
or to shudder at or to wonder at, but not to judge. ' ' 

Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, 
was only nine years old when he ascended the throne/ Dur- 
ing his brief reign (1547 to 1553), schismatical England was 
hurled into the more dismal abyss of heresy. Eager to safe- 
guard Catholic dogma and practices, the late king had pub- 
lished the Book of Articles and the King's Book and had 
compelled parliament to enact the Statute of the Six 
Articles. But now the mighty monarch was dead, and the 
very men who had been most obsequious to him in life, were 
the first to ignore his wishes. They made common cause 
with the foreign heretics and by degrees swept away the last 
vestiges of Catholic belief and discipline. Headed by Cran- 
mer, they hailed the accession of young Edward whom they 
knew to be thoroughly imbued with heretical tenets. What 
encouraged them most, however, was the fact that the Duke 
of Somerset, appointed protector of the realm during his 
nephew's minority, was a zealous adherent of the new 
teaching. According to Lingard, eleven-twelfths of the 
English population were still strongly attached to the old 
faith.^ But Cranmer and Somerset were determined to 
establish Protestantism, and they left nothing undone to 
carry out their design. Where persuasion and deception 
failed, unmasked tyranny succeeded. "They key-stone of 
the arch had been taken away when Henry broke with the 
Head of the Church, and the Sacraments followed in more 
or less rapid succession, till by a gradual and natural 
sequence nothing was left but a heap of ruins. ' '^ 

One of the saddest results of the spoliation of religious 
houses which continued during Edward's reign, was the 

7. Shortly before his death, Henry ordained that Edward, his son by 
Jane Seymour, was to inherit the crown, and that, should he die without 
an heir, Mary, Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, was to succeed 
him in preference to Elizabeth, born to him by Anne Boleyn. "From this 
it is most certain," Sander infers, "that he repudiated Catherine out of 
malice and in bad faith, actuated solely by a desire to possess himself of 
Anne Boleyn." Sander, ed. 1585, p. 105 ; ed. 1690, p. 318. 

8. Lingard, p. 151. 

9. Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 91. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 187 

wholesale destruction of libraries. Invaluable manuscripts, 
costly books, important records and documents were either 
committed to the flames or sold to shopkeepers for a few 
shillings. Great, indeed, must have been the havoc, if a con- 
temporary like Bale did not hesitate to declare, ''Our pos- 
terity may well curse this wicked fact of our age, this 
unreasonable spoil of England's most noble antiquities."^*^ 
Already during the preceding reign, the royal visitors had 
laid hands on the valuable library of Oxford university. 
Layton informed Cromwell that they had bound Duns 
Scotus in Bocardo, a prison in Oxford, and that they had 
banished him and all his obscure glosses from the university ; 
he ''is nowe," the wretch boasted, "made a comon ser- 
vant to evere man, faste nailede up upon postes in all 
comon bowses of easment."^^ During Edward's reign, in 
1550, carloads of books were publicly burned in the market- 
place at Oxford. Here again, the writings of Fr. Duns 
Scotus were the principal object of the "reformers' " rage 
and vandalism. His doctrine, strictly in keeping with 
Catholic dogma, was as popular among the scholars of the 
past centuries, as it was sacred to the Order to which he 
belonged. This explains why his works were above all con- 
spicuous during that senseless demonstration of hostility 
toward Catholic teaching. And further, to deal his fair 
reputation a telling blow, the base proceedings were styled 
Funus Scoti et Scotistarum, "as if," Parkinson remarks, 
"the preeminence among Scholastics, and the right of pref- 
erence in the schools had been due to the Subtle Doctor 
Duns Scotus and his followers. ' '^^ 

Great was the dismay of the reforming party, when, on 
July 6, 1553, King Edward died and Princess Mary, the 
daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, at last 
entered London amid the acclamations of the populace. 

10. Parkinson, Antiquities of the English Franciscans, p. 246. Bale, 
an ex-Carmelite, was a bitter and outspoken enemj' of papal supremacy 
and of the religious Orders. 

11. Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 71. 

12. Parkinson, p. 247. 



188 FRANCISCANS AND 

The noble queen, whom long years of suffering had taught 
the value of Catholic faith and worship, was determined to 
undo the work of her father and of her brother. During 
her first parliament, in 1553, she had the Catholic liturgy 
and disciplinary laws of the Church reestablished. On 
November 23, 1554, Cardinal Reginald Pole, her kinsman, 
was joyfully welcomed in London as papal legate a latere. 
A week later, in full session of parliament and in the pres- 
ence of the queen and her royal consort Philip II, of Spain, 
he presided at the solemn ceremony of reconciliation, and 
absolved them and the entire nation ''from all heresy and 
schism and all judgments, censures, and penalties therefor 
incurred." How the heart of the Queen Mary must have 
leaped for joy when the hall reechoed with a fervent 
' ' Amen ' ' and all the members rising from their knees pro- 
ceeded to the chapel, where they chanted the Te Deum in 
thanksgiving.^^ Little did she imagine that within a few 
years this joy would again be turned into sorrow. 

Queen Mary had hardly ascended the throne, when the 
Franciscans reappeared on the scene. Before the end of 
1553, though not yet officially recognized, they resided in 
their old friary at Greenwich. Naturally, they enjoyed the 
favor and esteem of their sovereign. How much had they 
not suffered in defence of her mother and of the Holy See ? 
Would they be less faithful and zealous now in her own 
cause ? Gratitude, therefore,, as well as prudence and jus- 
tice prompted her to rebuild and enlarge their friary at 
Greenwich and to recall those of their Order who were still 
living in exile.^* In the spring of 1555, the work of restora- 
tion at Greenwich was completed, and, on April 7, the sons 
of St. Francis were solemnly reinstated by the Bishop of 
Rochester.^^ 

We can easily imagine the joy of the friars when they 
returned to the familiar scenes of their former labors. Many 
a time they must have recalled the trials of the past years 

13. Lingard, p, 223. See also Annales Minorum, Vol. XIX, pp. 1 seq. 

14. Parkinson, p. 251. 

15. Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 95. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 189 

and spoken with the deepest reverence of those who had 
since won the crown of martyrdom for the faith. What 
emotions of gratitude to God and to their queen thrilled 
their hearts, when they assembled for choir and meditation 
in the very church where twenty years before Fr. Peyto 
had so boldly defied the king and his court. How warmly, 
too, they welcomed their brethren returning from exile. 
Besides FF. Peyto and Elstow, there were FF. John Stand- 
ish, John Richel, and John Gray, all men of singular vir- 
tue and learning, and the Spanish Franciscans who had 
accompanied their royal master Philip II to England.^° 

Gradually the number of friars increased, much to the 
satisfaction of the queen, who had two more houses, at Lon- 
don and Southampton, erected for them.^^ In November, 
1555, twenty-five friars were residing in their convent at 
Greenwich,^^ of which Fr. Elstow was appointed guardian. 
Queen Mary chose Fr. Peyto as her confessor and spiritual 
adviser,^^ while Fr. Stephen Fox apparently held the office 
of custos.^^ A few names of such as were received into the 
Order during Mary's reign have come down to us. Fr. 
Richard Britan, an Oxford scholar, had already suffered a 
long imprisonment under Henry VIII for openly defending 
the Pope's supremacy. Sander, who knew him at Oxford, 
tells us that he was a man of great mortification. He died 
shortly after his reception at the Greenwich friary. ^^ The 
other novices, FF. George Dennis, Thomas Bourchier and 
NN. Nelson,-- lived to witness the renewed persecution that 
began with the accession of Queen Elizabeth. 

Needless to say, the Franciscans were awake to the press- 
ing needs of the times, and with their customary zeal began 
to minister to the spiritual wants of the people. ''The 
spirit of St. Francis," writes Stone, ''was once more alive 

16. Parkinson, pp. 251, 254, 260. 

17. Ibidem, p. 251. 

18. Pastor, G^schichte der Paepste (Freiburg, 1913), Vol. VI, p. 604. 

19. Parkinson, p. 251. 

20. Mason, Certamen Seraphicum Provinciae Angliae, p. 15. See also 
Parkinson, p. 257. 

21. Parkinson, p. 249, 

22. Ibidem, pp. 256 seq., 261. 



190 FRANCISCANS AND 

in the land. The friars taught and preached and exhorted 
as before; and if they were spurned and treated with in- 
solence, as sometimes happened now, they taught and 
preached and exhorted all the more. It was the business of 
the shepherds to chase the wolf from the fold; it was the 
business of the friars to repair the damages which the wolf 
had done, to bind up the broken and confirm the weak."^^ 
A copious source of many evils were the abuses to which 
Sacred Scripture had been subjected by the heretics. Fr. 
John Standish ''observed, with great grief of mind, the 
intolerable abuses which arose from the rash and false in- 
terpretations of the Holy Scriptures, made by women and 
illiterate men, who were then indifferently permitted to read 
those sacred books in their mother language; and he used 
his utmost endeavors to have this weighty affair laid before 
the parliament, to obviate for the future all such abomin- 
able irreverences being done to the word of God, to hinder 
such profanations of the sacred text, and to prevent the 
erroneous and dangerous impressions apt to be made on the 
minds of the ignorant people by the ridiculous explications 
of taylors, weavers, coblers, silly women, and all sorts of 
mechanicks, who filled the thoughts of their unwary hearers 
with such remarks as were unworthy the holy mysteries of 
the Christian faith. On these important considerations 
Standish writ and published a book upon this subject, and 
entitled his work, Of not puUishing the Bible in vulgar 
Languages. "^^ In a sermon held before court, Fr. Alfonso 
Castro, a Spanish Franciscan, denounced the Council for 
taking measures against the heretics, that Avere not in keep- 
ing with the Christian law of charity.^^ This same friar 

23. stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 100. 

24. Parkinson, p. 251. 

25. Ibidem, p. 250 ; Stone, Marp the First, Queen of England, p. 264 ; 
Pastor, p. 585 ; Lingard, p. 231. For these rigorous proceedings of the 
Council against obstinate heretics, Protestant historians lay the blame on 
Queen Mary and consequently style her "Bloody Mary." For a critical and 
lucid refutation of this groundless charge, we refer the reader to Stone's 
Manj the First, Queen of England, chapter xiii. "It is as great an his- 
torical absurdity," the author of this best work on Queen Mary maintains, 
"to apply to Mary the epithet 'bloody,' as it is to attach that of 'good' 
to, Queen Elizabeth" (p. 371). 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 191 

held his famous controversy with Cranmer in Bocardo prison 
at Oxford and finally induced him to sign a recantation of 
his heretical tenets.^^ 

How the heretics were disposed toward the friars, and 
how they even resorted to open violence against them, may 
be seen from the following incident. One day, FF. Peyto 
and Elstow were returning home from London, when sud- 
denly a mob gathered to assault them. Seeing the danger to 
which they were exposed, the friars made good their escape 
by leaping into a boat. They, indeed, saved their lives, but 
someone in the crowd hurled a stone, which struck Fr. 
Peyto and broke one of his ribs.^'' Queen Mary, on the con- 
trary, repeatedly showed that she favored the friars. As 
we have heard, she provided them with three convents. On 
Saturday, March 21, 1555, Cardinal Pole was ordained 
priest at Lambeth, and on the following day, he said his 
first Mass and received the episcopal consecration in the 
Franciscan church at Greenwich, in the presence of the 
queen and the entire court.^^ In August of the same year, 
shortly before King Philip's departure for the continent, 
their majesties went in solemn procession to the friary 
church at Greenwich.^^ Subsequently, while her royal con- 
sort was abroad, the queen resided in the Greenwich palace, 
and we may suppose that she was in frequent consultation 
with Fr. Peyto, her confessor and spiritual adviser. A year 
later, however, the relation between the queen and Fr. 
Peyto was perhaps less cordial. In view of his learning and 
virtue and in reward for his unswerving loyalty to the 

26. Parkinson, p. 150 ; Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 101. Cranmer, 
who had done so much harm to the Church and State in England during 
the reign of Henry VIII and Edward VI, is without doubt one of the most 
despicable figures in English history. When, after a life of crime and 
scandal, he was finally convicted of heresy and handed over to the secular 
arm, he basely feigned repentance, hoping thereby to save his life. Queen 
Mary, only too eager to believe the hypocrite, although he had wronged 
her so greatly, would have used all her influence in his behalf. But public 
justice demanded retribution. On the day of his execution, the wretched 
man publicly recanted all the previous recantations he had made and died 
an apostate and a heretic. 

27. Parkinson, pp. 249, 253. 

28. stone, Mary . ... of England, p. 408, footnote, on the authority 
of Wriothesley. 

29. stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 97 ; Strickland, p. 567. 



192 FRANCISCANS AND 

Church, Pope Paul IV, with the unanimous approval of the 
Cardinals, created him Cardinal and appointed him to suc- 
ceed Cardinal Pole as legate a latere in England.^° Prior 
to 1547, while yet in exile, the distinguished friar had been 
named Bishop of Salisbury; but in his humility he gladly 
relinquished his claim, when Bishop Salcot (Capon), a 
nominee of Henry VIII, returned to the old faith.^^ Little 
then need we be surprised if now he used every lawful 
means to escape the new dignity thrust upon him, the more 
so because this appointment was to the prejudice of Car- 
dinal Pole, whom he loved as a friend and esteemed as a 
man of eminent qualities. "No one," says Stone, ''felt his 
incompetency for the dignity and office conferred upon him 
more than Fr. Peyto himself, and he entreated the Pontiff 
to be allowed to decline them, as too great a burden for the 
old shoulders. ' '^^ In a letter to the Pope, he stated that he 
could not show himself in the streets of London without be- 
ing insulted.^^ But the Pope insisted and demanded that 
he come to Rome ; whereupon, it seems, Fr. Peyto departed 
for the continent. He remained in France, where in April, 
1558, he departed this life.^* How little this affair estranged 
the queen from the friars may be seen from the fact that in 
her last will, dated April 30, 1558, she bequeathed five hun- 
dred pounds to the guardian and convent of the Franciscan 
friars at Greenwich and two hundred pounds to those at 
Southampton.^^ 

Worry over the coldness and neglect of Philip II, her 
royal consort, and anxiety regarding the succession to the 
throne, had gradually undermined the health of Queen 
Mary. To this came the fall of Calais, on January 8, 1558, 
a disaster which made the public mind restive and distrust- 
ful, and which was a severe blow not only to the queen but 

30. Annates Minorum, Vol. XIX, pp. 110, 113. 

31. Ibidem, Vol. XIX, pp. 109, 113. See also Stone, Faithful Unto 
Death, p. 96, footnote. 

32. Stone, Mary . ... of England, p. 457. 

33. Pastor, Vol. VI, p. 608. 

34. Annales Minorum, Vol. XIX, p. 113. See also Leon, Aureole 
Seraphique Engl. tr.. p. 357, footnote. 

35. Stone, Mary . ... of England, pp. 507 seq. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 193 

also to the cause of the Catholic Church so dear to her heart. 
During the following spring and autumn, her health sank 
rapidly so that with the advent of autumn she felt her end 
fast approaching. Anxious that the work of restoration be 
continued after her death, and at the same time justly 
doubting the orthodoxy of Princess Elizabeth, who would 
succeed her as queen, she sent commissioners to examine her 
on the matter of religion. The unscrupulous Princess swore 
that she was a Catholic; and accordingly, on November 6, 
the queen sent her jewels to Elizabeth, again requesting her 
to further the old religion, when once the reins of govern- 
ment would be in her hands. Finally, on the morning of 
November 17, the end came. A priest was celebrating holy 
Mass in her room; and when he ''took the Sacred Host to 
consume it, she adored it with her voice and countenance, 
presently closed her eyes and rendered her blessed soul to 
God."^^ She was laid to rest on December 14, in West- 
minster Abbey on the north side of Henry VII 's chapel. 
It was the last royal funeral conducted in England accord- 
ing to the rites of the Catholic Church. 

36. Ibidem, pp. 466 seq. That same day, at seven in the evening, 
Cardinal Pole breathed his last. 



CHAPTER XII 

UNDER THE LAST TUDOR, 1558-1603 

Queen Elizabeth's perfidy — Excommunicated hy the Pope 
— The persecution against Catholics revived — Queen 
Elizabeth and the Franciscans — The friars expelled and 
banished — One of the exiles, a martyr — Franciscans in 
England dunng Elizabeth's reign — Fr. John Storrens 
martyred in 1572 — Venerable Godfrey Buckley, 0. F. M. 
— At first a secular priest — Joins the Franciscans in 
Rome — On the English mission — Seized and imprisoned 
— Tried and condemned to death for being a priest — His 
martyrdom. 

Queen Mary departed this life, trusting that her sister 
was as good as her word and that she would continue the 
work of restoration. On January 15, 1559, Princess Eliza- 
beth submitted to the ancient Catholic coronation ceremo- 
nies, received Holy Communion and under solemn oath 
promised allegiance to the Pope and the Church of Rome. 
Deep down in her heart, however, the unscrupulous and 
treacherous queen was contemplating a final and decisive 
blow at Catholic doctrine and worship. No sooner was she 
firmly seated on the throne, to which she well knew Mary 
Stuart, Queen of Scotland, had a better right, than she 
threw off the mask and began undoing the work of her 
saintly predecessor. 

During the reign of her father, Henry VIII, the Eng- 
lish hierarchy proved all too pliant to the wiU of their 
monarch. Now, however, having learned by experience that 
schism and heresy were practically inseparable, the bishops 
firmly opposed every encroachment of the government on 
the rights of the Church and of the Holy See. Elizabeth, 

194 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 195 

therefore, justly fearing a too rigorous pursuit of her proj- 
ect might enkindle a general uprising against her, counseled 
her ministers to proceed slowly and cautiously. After 1570, 
however, when Pope Pius V, after much pleading and long 
waiting, finalty excommunicated Elizabeth and freed the 
people from allegiance to her, the storm of persecution 
against Catholics broke forth in full fury. It is not our 
purpose here to depict in detail how this terrible woman, 
supported by a few cringing courtiers, abused her Catholic 
subjects and at last succeeded in establishing Anglicanism 
as the State religion. Suffice it to say, during the forty- 
five years of her reign, ''good Queen Bess" proved in her 
public as well as in her private life a worthy daughter of 
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. 

With deep regret the English Franciscans witnessed this 
second storm of religious persecution gather over the coun- 
try.^ As to themselves, they knew quite well that Elizabeth 
hated them in particular for the boldness and determina- 
tion with which in years gone by they had opposed her 
worthless mother, questioned her own legitimacy, cham- 
pioned the rights of the papacy, and, during the preceding 
reign, helped to reestablish Catholic doctrine and worship. 
Little then were they surprised when on June 12, 1559, one 
of her first measures was to seize their friary at Greenwich 
and to banish all the members of their Order from England. 
Many of the friars refused to leave the country, while others 
trusting in Divine Providence, once more wandered into 
exile and at last found a home among their brethren on the 
continent. 

In the Province of Lower Germany, Davenport tells us, 
many of the English friars distinguished themselves as men 
of eminent virtue and learning. Since his banishment un- 
der Henry VIII, Fr. Henry Holstam had been twice ap- 

1. Unless otherwise stated, our sources of information regarding the 
English Franciscans at home and abroad during the reign of Elizabeth are 
Fr. Angelus Mason, Certamen Seraphicum : Fr. Luke Wadding, Atinales 
Minorum; Fr. Anthony Parkinson, Antiquities of the English Franciscans, 
whose authorities besides Mason are chiefly Fr. Francis Davenport, Fr. 
Francis Gonzaga, Anthony Wood and Jeremy Collier. 



196 FRANCISCANS AND 

pointed visitor of this province and, in 1549, he was elected 
its provincial minister. Other English friars taught 
theology in the Franciscan convent at Louvain so success- 
fully that to them, as Fr. Pinchart later admitted, the mem- 
bers of the province were indebted for their learning. 
Among those who ended their days in this province was Fr. 
John Elstow, who apparently returned to Lower Germany, 
when Elizabeth expelled the Order from England. 

Fr. Thomas Bourchier was a descendant of the earls of 
Bath. He received his classical education at Magdalen Col- 
lege, Oxford, and joined the Franciscans at Greenwich to- 
ward the close of Queen Mary's reign. Later, together 
with Fr. Thomas Langton, also an English exile, he con- 
tinued his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and subsequently 
obtained the doctor's degree. Thereupon, he went to Rome 
and lived in the famous Franciscan friary of Ara Coeli. 
Here he died about the year 1586. Pits who knew the 
eminent friar in Rome tells us that he was a man of extraor- 
dinary piety and learning and deserved well of his Order 
and of the Church of Christ. He is the author of the much- 
quoted Historia Ecclesiastica, a brief account of the martyr- 
dom of the Franciscans in England, Belgium, and Ireland 
between the years 1536 and 1582. 

Fr. John Standish, who distinguished himself during 
Queen Mary's reign as a zealous and fearless defender of 
the Sacred Scriptures, was a nephew of Fr. Henry Standish, 
at one time provincial of the English Franciscans and later 
Bishop of Asaph. Fr. John was clothed with the habit of 
St. Francis shortly before the first outbreak of the persecu- 
tion under Henry VIII. When the dissolution of religious 
houses began, he went to Paris and after the usual course of 
studies merited the doctor's degree in theology. He re- 
turned to his native land during the restoration and de- 
parted this life shortly before the outbreak of the second 
storm. Pits says that Fr. John was ' ' a man celebrated for 
learning, piety, faith and zeal for the honor of God." 

Fr. George Dennis was born of a prominent family in 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 197 

Devonshire. In 1545, when the English laid siege to 
Boulogne, he served his country as royal standard-bearer. 
In 1558, however, he renounced the world and joined the 
Franciscans at Greenwich. He was still a novice, when 
Elizabeth banished the friars. Filled with holy zeal, Fr. 
George refused to leave the Order and departed with his 
brethren for the continent. About the year 1585, the saintly 
friar died and was buried in the Franciscan convent of 
Liege, where he had spent the greater part of his holy life. 

In the second year of Elizabeth 's reign, Fr. Stephen Fox 
likewise left England and came to the convent of St. Fran- 
cis in Antwerp. Some time later, when the city was plun- 
dered by the heretics, he was again forced to flee. With 
about twenty English Poor Clares, he at first went to Rouen 
and later proceeded to Lisbon in Portugal, where Philip II 
had a convent erected for the nuns. Fr. Stephen died in 
Lisbon, in 1588, and was laid to rest in the church of the 
Poor Clares. 

Another English Franciscan priest, who probably be- 
longed to the Greenwich community, was Fr. John Richel. 
He entered the Order during the reign of Henry VIII and 
lived to witness the utter ruin of the once glorious Fran- 
ciscan province in England. Seventy-two years of his life 
he spent as a true and faithful son of St. Francis, highly 
esteemed for virtue and holiness. The venerable jubilarian 
passed to his eternal reward in the friary at Louvain about 
the year 1599, having attained the ripe old age of ninety- 
seven years. 

When Elizabeth banished the Franciscans, a certain Fr. 
Richard (his surname is not known) for a time defied the 
queen and bravely continued to labor for the spiritual wel- 
fare of his persecuted countrymen. At last, however, he 
was arrested for being a priest and thrown into prison. 
After a long and severe confinement, he was for some reason 
or other set free and banished. He spent the remainder of 
his life in the Franciscan province of Andalusia in Spain 
and died at Herez de la Frontera, in 1619. So great was 



198 FRANCISCANS AND 

his reputation for sanctity that after his death the towns- 
folk cut bits of cloth from his habit, and treasured them as 
the relics of a saint.^ 

Of the English Franciscans who were living in exile, Fr. 
John Gray alone attained the martyr 's crown. He was the 
son of a noble and wealthy English family,^ and at the time 
of his martyrdom resided in the Franciscan convent at 
Brussels. During the absence of Don Juan of Austria, a 
horde of fanatical sectaries entered the city and set about 
molesting the Catholics and plundering the churches. As 
in England, so also here the Franciscans were especially 
odious to the heretics. On June 5, 1579, their friary was 
assailed. When the porter, Fr. James Leisman, an English 
lay Brother, saw the mob approaching, he barricaded the 
doors and warned his brethren of the impending danger. 
While the terror-stricken friars made good their escape, one 
of the community was both unable and unwilling to flee. It 
was Fr. John Gray, a man of seventy winters, who had 
spent the greater part of his religious life in exile. * 'Let us 
stay in God's house," he exhorted the fleeing friars ; ''where 
can we die so happily as in the presence of the Blessed 
Sacrament, on the holy spot where we hope to be buried." 
But his words fell on deaf ears ; Fr. James alone remained 
with the aged and infirm priest. 

By this time, the infuriated mob had forced their way 
into the friary. Meeting the porter, they beat him with 
cudgels until he lost consciousness. Leaving him for dead, 
they rushed madly to the church, where they found Fr. 
John kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament. Like raven- 
ous wolves, they seized him and began to insult and mal- 
treat him. Hardly knowing what he did, so great were his 
pain and terror, the venerable friar begged his enemies to 

2. Thomas Felton, martyred for the faith in 1588. and Henry More, a 
nephew of Bl. Thomas More, were not Franciscans, as is frequently stated, 
but Minims. This on the authority of Fr. Livarius Oliger in The Catholic 
Encyclopedia, Vol. X, p. 325. 

3. Bourchier, whose Hist. Eccle. de Mart. FF. Ord. D. Franeisd, Is 
our chief source of information regarding this friar, affirms with other 
chroniclers that he was of Scotch extraction. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 199 

spare him. ''What," cried the ruffians, ''shall we spare 
thee, thou wretch!" Thereupon one of the mob drew his 
sword and dealt the innocent priest a severe blow on the 
head. Mortally wounded the martyr fell to the floor and 
with a kindly, "I certainly forgive you," he passed to his 
eternal reward. Bourchier relates that Fr. John bore the 
stigmata of St. Francis on his feet, adding that he himself 
had the privilege of seeing them. The martyred priest was 
known far and wide for his great sanctity. Hence, when 
the people heard that he had laid down his life for the faith, 
they hastened to the friary to do homage to his mortal re- 
mains. Bourchier further attests that a miracle was wrought 
through intercession of the martyr. A man who was near 
death, on learning what had happened in the Franciscan 
friary, asked that a cloth dipped in the martyr's blood be 
brought to him. On receiving it, the dying man kissed it 
reverently, whereupon he was immediately restored to 
health. 

Not all the friars left their country and died in exile. 
A large percentage ignored Elizabeth's orders, remained 
secretly with their flock, and sought in every way to coun- 
teract the efforts of those illiterate and malevolent preachers 
to whom the government entrusted the dissemination of 
heresy. Needless to say, indescribable hardships and count- 
less obstacles confronted the friars at every turn. Robbed 
of their cherished friaries, they wandered about from place 
to place, discharging their religious and priestly duties as 
best they might. To be ordained priest ; to shelter, aid, or 
support a priest; to celebrate or assist at the Sacrifice of 
Mass; to administer or receive the sacraments — all these 
were crimes punishable with fines or imprisonment, and 
eventually with death on the scaffold. Towns and hamlets 
were infested with spies who, like Topcliffe, were ever on 
the alert for priests and religious and glorified in ferreting 
out their secret hiding-places. Hence we can readily con- 
ceive how constant fear and anxiety lest their labor of love 
be cut short and the people grow weak for want of spiritual 



200 FRANCISCANS AND 

sustenance, frequently drove the hunted friars into secluded 
caves and holes, where for weeks and months they eked out 
e miserable existence. Accustomed, as they were, to com- 
munity life with its thousand charms and blessings, their 
condition was particularly distressing. They no longer had 
their friaries whither they might return after a day's 
arduous labor to find peace and rest. No longer could they 
seek the fatherly counsels of a prudent superior or share the 
sympathy and geniality of a loving fellow friar. All this 
was a thing of the past ; they were now thrown on their own 
resources. They dared not appear publicly in their habit 
or with any distinctive mark of their sacred character, but 
had to go about in disguise and under assumed names, on 
which account, we may suppose, they were in many cases 
"unable to identify themselves before the people on whose 
charity they depended for the necessaries of life. 

Still, if the lot of the wandering friars was hard and 
distressing, their wonted zeal for the things of God was 
none the less fervent and self-sacrificing. We find, there- 
fore, that all through the reign of Elizabeth there were al- 
ways Franciscans in the mission-fields of England, ready to 
Buffer everything, even death itself, for the salvation of 
immortal souls. Prudence, of course, demanded that they 
perform their duties in the greatest secrecy. Hence it is 
that to-day we find so little recorded regarding the activity 
of these men of God, and are restricted for a general esti- 
mate of their life and labors to a few isolated facts that 
chanced to come to the notice of the chroniclers. 

A number of friars were at last captured by the royal 
emissaries and thrown into prison, where they ended their 
days in misery and oblivion. Thus it is known that, in 
1583, a certain Fr. Thomas Ackrick lay confined as prisoner 
in Hull Castle.* Others, like Fr. Tonstall, vexed the gov- 
ernment by the boldness with which they toiled in the vine- 
yard of the Lord. Others, finally, defied and baffled the 
queen's priest-catchers. Thus, for instance, Fr. Gregory 

4. Thaddeus, The Franoiscans in Englwnd, p. 19, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 201 

Basset was thought to be in hiding in Herefordshire; but, 
although his enemies were constantly on the look-out for 
him, they apparently never succeeded in getting him into 
their clutches. In fine, so great was the number of Fran- 
ciscans in England at this time that, as Hope says, *'even 
in the first year of Elizabeth's reign the government was 
greatly irritated against them, and attributed to their zeal 
the want of unity among Protestants. ' '^ Only regarding a 
few individuals have some interesting details been trans- 
mitted to posterity. 

One of the first priests to suffer martyrdom during the 
reign of Elizabeth was Fr. John Storrens. Nothing is 
known regarding the early life of this friar except the fact 
that he was a native of England. At the time of Queen 
Mary, he was teaching at Oxford and held the offices of 
chancellor of the university and grand-inquisitor in the 
government's proceedings against heresy. It was very 
likely when Elizabeth ascended the throne and a second 
rupture with the Holy See threatened the Church in Eng- 
land, that he departed from Belgium and there joined the 
Franciscan Order. Meanwhile, Elizabeth had reopened 
hostilities against her Catholic subjects. This induced Fr. 
John to return to his native land. How long he succeeded 
in evading the queen's spies, is not known. At last, how- 
ever, he was seized, cast into a prison, and, after under- 
going the severest hardships, sentenced to death. At the 
place of execution, the heroic friar fearlessly exhorted the 
attending populace to remain true to their holy faith. Then 
at the command of the sheriff he ascended the scaffold. 
While the executioner was placing the rope about his neck, 
a loud murmur of disapproval arose among the bystanders. 
There was evident danger that a tumult would ensue; 
wherefore the executioners cut him down alive and without 
delay ripped him open, tore out his palpitating heart and 
entrails, and ruthlessly split open his head. The martyrdom 

5. Hope, Fran&iscan Martyrs in England, p. 86. 



202 FRANCISCANS AND 

took place in 1572, two years after Elizabeth had been ex- 
communicated by the Pope.® 

In his famous Certamen Seraphiciim, Mason brings at 
some length what a religious priest related about a certain 
Fr. John, commonly known as the ''Old Beggar." When 
by order of Elizabeth, the Franciscans had to quit England 
this saintly friar found refuge in the house of Roger Lock- 
wood in the parish of Leyland, county Lancaster. Here he 
resided till about the year 1590, when death summoned him 
to a better life. So popular was Fr. John for virtue and 
holiness, that the Earl of Derby prevailed upon the queen 
to allow the harmless friar to wear his religious habit in 
public, although the penal laws against Catholics were then 
in full force. Heaven favored Fr. John with the gift of 
working miracles. And when old age and bodily infirmities 
no longer permitted him to wander about in discharge of 
his priestly duties, the people flocked to him from all parts 
of northern England, in order to obtain help from him in 
their spiritual and temporal needs. That he was a Fran- 
ciscan and not a Benedictine, as some claim, is quite certain 
from the testimony of the woman who served him in his ill- 
ness. She was still living when Mason wrote his Certamen 
Seraphicum and testified that Fr. John never received or 
touched money, and that he himself had told her he was a 
mendicant and a beggar. Her testimony is strengthened 
by that of William Walton, one of the friar's penitents, 
who maintained that his father confessor went about bare- 
foot and wore the grey habit and the cord of St. Francis. 

About the same time that Fr. John closed his remark- 
able career, another English Franciscan, Fr. Laurence 
Collier, succumbed to the hardships of prison life. For a 

b. Gaudentius, Bedeutung und Verdiensts des Franziskanerordena 
gegen den Protestantismus, pp. 170 seq., whose sources of information 
regarding this friar are Hueber's Menologhnn, the Franciscan Martyrology, 
Sannig's Tripl. Chronic, Gonzaga, and Barrezus. Strange to say, Fr. John 
Storrens is not mentioned in any of the English sources at our disposal ; 
his name does not appear on the list of those who were beatified by Pope 
Lieo XIII, on December 9, 1886 ; nor on the list of those whose cause of 
beatification was proposed to the Sacred Congregation, in the same year 
on December 4. See Acta Minorum, Vol. VI. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 203 

long time he succeeded in escaping the vigilance of the 
notorious priest-catchers. But at last, probably at Stafford, 
he was seized and committed to prison, where after two years 
of intense suffering he departed this life to share the glory 
and bliss of the next. 

Another Franciscan whose name sheds luster on the 
history of the English province during these troublous 
times was Fr. Nelson, a priest of singular holiness and un- 
daunted zeal. He entered the Order during the period of 
restoration. Subsequently, during the entire reigns of 
Elizabeth and James I, Fr. Nelson toiled and suffered in 
the English missions. As usual, the details regarding his 
long and untiring activity were perhaps never recorded. 
All we know is that he spent the last thirty years of his life 
in the house of a Catholic gentleman, two miles distant from 
Hereford. Here, too, about the year 1628, the holy friar 
breathed his last and entered the realms of eternal joy to 
receive the reward for his long and faithful service in the 
Order of St. Francis. 

Fr. William Stanney (Staney) was active in England at 
the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seven- 
teenth centuries. He was a man of acknowledged virtue 
and learning, and, in 1598, received the official seal of the 
English province from Ven. Fr. Godfrey Buckley, shortly 
before the latter 's martyrdom. That same year perhaps, 
the zealous missionary was taken prisoner and confined in 
Marshalsea. History does not tell us how he regained his 
liberty. But it is certain that in 1601 he was appointed 
commissary of the English Franciscans. Of this he himself 
informs us in the foreword to his Treatise of the Third 
Order of St. Francis, a sort of manual which he wrote for 
the use of secular Tertiaries, and which was published at 
Douai in 1617. It was probably in 1610 that he received 
Fr. John Gennings into the Franciscan Order, to whom also, 
a few years later, he entrusted the seal of the province.' 
We may say, therefore, that Fr. William forms the con- 

7. Thaddeus, p. 27. 



204 FRANCISCANS AND 

necting link between the first and the second Franciscan 
Province of England. Whether he had any share in the 
founding of the Second Province, undertaken by Fr. Gen- 
nings a few years after his reception into the Order, does 
not appear from the records. All we know is that in 1620 
he summoned to England one of the nuns of the Third 
Order Regular, who had established themselves at Brussels 
and were under the direction of Fr. Gennings. ** After 
this year," Thaddeus concludes, *'no further mention oc- 
curs of Father Staney. It must only be added that in the 
annals of the Order he is praised for his integrity and holi- 
ness of life. ' '^ 

Before the close of the century, at a time when the 
province was almost extinct, another English Franciscan 
sealed his missionary career with the glorious crown of 
martyrdom.^ John Buckley, alias Jones, was born about 
the year 1530 of a prominent and wealthy family in Carnar- 
vonshire. Like the majority of the people in Wales, his 
parents had remained staunch and fervent Catholics. Hence 
they did not object to their son's embracing the sacerdotal 
state. The place and time of his ordination, however, is a 
matter of mere conjecture. Since in later life he was com- 
monly regarded an *^old" priest, it seems probable that he 
received Holy Orders during the reign of Queen Mary. No 
doubt, he foresaw what hardships his sacred profession 
would involve, when, in 1559, Elizabeth ascended the throne. 
Perhaps to prepare himself for the coming conflict, he, in 
1561, departed for Belgium in company of his friend Wil- 
liam Allen, who subsequently became a priest and cardinal. 
That he returned with Allen a year later, seems quite prob- 
able. His name is not found on the records of the English 

8. Ibidem, p. 20. 

9. Hope, Franciscan Martyrs m England, pp. 89-98 ; and Stone, Faith- 
ful Unto Death, pp. 107-113. They base their narrative on a letter of 
Father Henry Garnet, S. J., to the Father General of the Society ; on ^ 
manuscript in the library of the University of Louvain, in which the friar's 
trial and execution are described apparently by an eye-witness ; . on the 
Life of F. John Gerard, S. J., by Morris ; and on Challoner's Memoirs of 
Missionary Priests. See also Mason, Gertamen Seraphicum, pp. 16 seq. ; 
and Parkinson, Antiquities of the English Franciscans, pp. 258 seq. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 205 

College at Douai, from which we may conclude that he was 
active in England before 1568, the year in which Allen 
founded the famous missionary college. 

Unfortunately, we are left in complete darkness regard- 
ing the future martyr's priestly career previous to 1582. 
We can imagine, however, what his lot must have been if 
we consider the perils and trials which at the time beset the 
life of the English missionaries. He wandered about in 
disguise and under the aliases John or Griffith Jones, Robert 
or Herbert Buckley. Neither is it known how long he suc- 
ceeded in escaping the clutches of the priest-catchers. Cer- 
tain is only that he lay confined in Marshalsea, a London 
prison, before June, 1582, and that he was again at large in 
October, 1586, under which date his name appears on the 
list of ''priests that have been prisoners and were out upon 
bond." Fr. John, as we have heard, was of a prominent 
and wealthy family, and hence it is not unlikely that some 
friend of his at court had him released. A year later, how- 
ever, we find him again a prisoner, this time in Wisbeach 
Castle, which fact, according to Hope, "proves that he 
possessed an independent fortune; for Elizabeth was 
economical in her cruel tyranny, and only those who could 
maintain themselves were sent to Wisbeach, while poorer 
prisoners were either banished or hanged. ' '^^ It was prob- 
ably here that Fr. John, leading with his fellow captives a 
sort of community life, conceived a liking for the religious 
state and resolved, on regaining his liberty, to join the Or- 
der of St. Francis, once so widespread, popular, and active 
in England." 

Whether the zealous priest was at last banished, or 
whether he succeeded in escaping from prison, has not been 
recorded. All we know is that, in 1590, he left Wisbeach 
Castle and forthwith proceeded to Pontoise in France, 
where he applied at the Conventual friary for admission 

10. Hope, p. 91. 

11. stone thinks (p. 108) that "possibly, at Wisbeach, he encountered 
some holy Franciscan, In prison for the same cause as himself, whose 
example Inflamed him with a desire for the religious life." 



206 FRANCISCANS AND 

into the Order. His request was granted, and henceforth 
he was known as Fr. Godfrey. Soon after he departed for 
Kome, where he joined the Franciscans and spent three years 
in their friary of Ara Coeli.^^ "To one," says Hope, "who 
had already borne the cross and practiced the hardships of 
poverty, the further sacrifice of his worldly goods would 
have cost little. But it needed more than ordinary humility 
to enter religion at nearly sixty years of age, and by placing 
himself among the novices, to submit himself to religious 
superiors, who were probably his inferiors in years, suffer- 
ing and spiritual experience." Many a time during these 
three years of retirement, Fr. Godfrey must have thought 
of and prayed for his persecuted countrymen, whose condi- 
tion had by this time become well-nigh unbearable. He 
longed to live and labor once more in their midst, and per- 
haps even hoped to gain in the end, like so many of his 
brethren, the crown of martyrdom. After completing his 
religious training, he asked his superiors to send him to the 
English missions. Filled with holy joy on learning that his 
request had been granted, he visited Pope Clement VIII to 
beg his apostolic blessing. When informed of the friar's 
intention, the Holy Father embraced him tenderly, blessed 
him, and said, ' ' Go, for I believe you are a true son of St. 
Francis. Pray to God for me and his Holy Church." 

That same year, 1593, Fr. Godfrey arrived in London. 
Fr. Gerard informs us that the aged friar was the first to 
be received into the house which he had secured as a hiding- 
place for priests. He stayed in London a few months and 
then repaired to the country districts, where, it seems, he 
was henceforth known as Godfrey Maurice.^^ Hampered by 
the usual difficulties and hardships, he labored here "about 
three years, ' ' as Fr. Garnet writes, ' ' in tilling the vineyard 
of Christ with no small profit. ' ' Then of a sudden his ae- 

12. That he was at first a Conventual and shortly after Joined the 
Franciscans, we learn from Parkinson, p. 259. See also Stone, p. 108. 

13. Garnet calls him Godofredus Mauricius. The missionaries at the 
time were compelled to go under assumed names. Hence it is often very 
dlflScult at the present day to determine their real name. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 207 

tivity was cut short. He was captured and thrown into 
prison, where, we learn from Fr. Garnet's letter, he re- 
mained "about two years, during the latter part of which 
time he was treated with less rigor and had a certain amount 
of liberty. The quantity of good he did was incredible, 
through the great concourse of Catholics that came to 
him."" The zeal and sanctity of this worthy son of St. 
Francis had by this time attracted the attention of his 
brethren. They chose him minister provincial of the Eng- 
lish Franciscans and entrusted to him the official seal of 
the province. Shortly before his martyrdom, Fr. Godfrey 
delivered this seal into the hands of Fr. William Stanney, 
thereby appointing him to succeed in the office. 

The liberties which the imprisoned friar enjoyed and 
the zeal with which he discharged his priestly duties, at last 
roused the envy and indignation of Topcliffe. Determined 
to trump up some charge that would bring him to the scaf- 
fold, the notorious priest-catcher began to make inquiries 
regarding his previous history. His efforts were not in vain. 
In the spring of 1598, one of his spies reported that Fr. 
Godfrey before his arrest had been hiding for two days in 
the house of Mrs. Jane Wiseman, had said Mass there, and 
had received alms from her and from Mr. Robert Barnes.^^ 
The accusation was serious, and Topcliffe hastened to profit 
by it. Accordingly, Fr. Godfrey was indicted and sum- 
moned to appear, on July 13, before the King's Bench in 
Westminster. When challenged with going abroad to be 
ordained priest by authority of Rome and then returning to 
England in defiance of the laws, the man of God fearlessly 
confessed : 

' ' If this be a crime I must own myself guilty ; for I am 
a priest, and I came over to England to gain as many 
souls as I could to Christ. But I deny that I have ever 

14. According to Mason, p. 17, he was apprehended soon after his 
landing in England and cast into prison, where he remained some years. 
See also Annales Minorum, Vol. XIX, p. 294 ; Parkinson, p. 260. 

15. Both, Mr. Barnes and Mrs. Wiseman, were tried and condemned to 
death. Their sentence was commuted to imprisonment. 



208 FRANCISCANS AND 

intermeddled directly or indirectly in any manner of 
treason. ' ' 

* ' You are not charged with any matter of treason, ' ' the 
lord chief justice explained, ''neither is there any matter of 
treason to be objected against you, except that you are a 
priest and have come into England; nor is there anything 
further needed. For by your own confession you are within 
the compass of the law. ' ' 

Disgust and dissatisfaction with Elizabeth's bloody 
measures against Catholics had of late become noticeable 
among the lower classes. The judges were therefore evi- 
dently anxious to shake off the responsibility of another 
public execution ; hence they urged the prisoner to demand 
a trial by jury. 

' ' I will not have my blood required of men ignorant in 
the law," objected the disinterested and zealous priest; *'I 
place myself and my cause before God and the Bench. You 
have made the laws, and therefore you must know best what 
is the meaning of them. ' ' 

Upon this the judges were constrained to pass sentence 
and condemned Fr. Godfrey to be hanged, drawn, and 
quartered. But, to prevent all unnecessary commotion 
among the people, it was decided that the execution should 
take place at seven o'clock in the morning. When the sen- 
tence of death was read, the venerable priest knelt down 
and returned thanks to God for the singular privilege of 
dying in defence of his faith and sacred profession. 

On the morning of July 22, 1598, the executioners took 
the gentle friar from his dungeon, fastened him to a hurdle, 
and dragged him through the streets of London. Arriving 
at St. Thomas' Waterings, where everything was in readi- 
ness for the grewsome tragedy, they released him from his 
painful position and led him to the gallows. After saying 
a short prayer, the man of God rose to his feet, and fear- 
lessly facing his enemies, he solemnly called Heaven to wit- 
ness that neither from Mr. Barnes nor from Mrs. Wiseman 
had he ever received one penny in silver. 



THE PpOTESTANT REVOLUTION 209 

**But gold they did give you," snapped Topcliffe. 

* * Nor yet gold, ' ' was the speedy but calm reply. Anx- 
ious, lest his friends be made to suffer unjustly on his 
account, he further declared that he had not said Mass in 
their presence. 

**No," fell in Topcliffe sarcastically, *'for they were 
public prayers, there being no superaltar. ' ' 

''There are no such things, Master Topcliffe," boldly 
retorted the friar; "neither did I say any public prayers 
at all in their hearing. ' ' 

At a loss for a suitable answer, the queen 's servile crea- 
ture accused his victim of having said private prayers. 
This was a charge that involved the martyr alone, and with- 
out reserve he gave vent to his feelings. 

''I confess," he avowed earnestly, "with thanks to 
Almighty God for that grace, that I said such short and 
secret prayers as I have ever used since I was newly risen. 
And so I will do as long as I live, do you, Mr. Topcliffe, 
what you will. ' ' 

Then he fell on his knees and prayed, while Topcliffe 
turning to the spectators, read a paper, th« contents of 
which, he trusted, would establish the friar's disloyalty to 
the queen, and thus create public sentiment against him. 
We shall see how poorly he succeeded. 

Having prayed about a quarter of an hour, Fr. Godfrey 
arose and with Topcliffe 's assistance climbed ifito the cart 
that was standing under the gallows. Then first was it 
noticed that the hangman had forgotten to bring a rope 
and immediately a horseman was sent into the city to fetch 
one. 

In the meantime, the martyr turning toward the people 
again proclaimed his allegiance to the queen and the realm. 
He further averred that, according to the declaration of 
the lord chief justice, he had come here to die not because 
he was a traitor, but because he was a priest and a Fran- 
ciscan. This statement the under-marshal confirmed, 



210 FRANCISCANS AND 

whereupon one of the spectators protested that an innocent 
man was about to be executed. 

"Patience awhile, sir," broke in Topcliffe quite alarmed 
at the menacing attitude of the people ; ' ' you shall soon see 
what manner of innocent he is. Tell me, ' ' he cried, turning 
to the friar, ''if the Pope excommunicated the queen, or 
tried to turn her out of her kingdom in order to encourage 
Papistry, what would you do, or what would you advise 
others to do?" 

When Fr. Godfrey, ignoring this question, once more 
asserted that he prayed every day for the spiritual and 
temporal welfare of the queen, Topcliffe interposed saying 
that he as well as all other priests and Catholics were dis- 
loyal subjects of her majesty and would kill her if they 
could. 

This base insinuation wounded the martyr's sense of 
truth and justice. 

"I am certain," he challenged his lying accuser, "that 
I myself, and all other priests and Catholics, are ready to 
suffer much more for the good of the queen than you are. 
Master Topcliffe, though your cruelty alone has been suf- 
ficient to make her odious to all the priests in Christendom. ' ' 

An hour had now elapsed, when suddenly, "A reprieve! 
a reprieve ! ' ' resounded on every side. Soon the horseman 
drew up to the place of execution. "Ay, ay, here it is!" 
he exclaimed, showing a rope to the excited multitude. 

Without delay, Topcliffe issued orders. The rope was 
fastened to the gallows, while one of the hangmen leaped into 
the cart and placed the noose about the friar's neck. Seiz- 
ing the reins, he was about to whip off the horses, when of a 
sudden three stalwart fellows rushed forward, held back 
the terrified animals, and boldly demanded that the man of 
God be permitted to finish speaking. Topcliffe trembled 
with rage ; but he dared not ignore the demand of the riot- 
ous multitude. Meanwhile, all eyes rested on the unoffend- 
ing friar who was gazing heavenward and praying aloud, 
' ' Sweet Jesus, have mercy on my soul. ' ' With a sneer, the 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 211 

under-marshal remarked that he had forgotten the Blessed 
Virgin; whereupon, the servant of God added, ''Blessed 
queen of heaven, be my advocate and pray for me now and 
ever. ' * 

After a moment of quiet prayer, the martyr again ex- 
claimed, ''Sweet Jesus, have mercy on my soul." Then he 
gave a priest in the crowd the usual sign and received the 
last absolution,^® whereupon he turned to the people and 
asked them to say one Credo and to pray for him. Im- 
patient over the long delay, Topcliffe began to rebuke and 
ridicule the martyr, who in reply calmly begged not to be 
disturbed in his last prayers, since he had come to die for 
the faith. Once more he commended his soul to God, when 
with a sudden jolt the cart was drawn from under him and 
the form of the holy man was seen dangling from the 
gallows. 

Alarmed at the disaffection that the sight of the martyr 
awakened in the multitude surrounding the gallows, Top- 
cliffe allowed him to hang until life was extinct. Then the 
corpse was taken down and subjected to the usual barbari- 
ties. The head was exposed on a pole in Southwark; but 
the cheerful and smiling countenance it wore attracted such 
wide attention that after two days officials came and re- 
moved the head, having first disfigured the face most shame- 
fully. The quarters were hung on four trees that skirted 
the roads leading to Newington and Lambeth. Two prom- 
inent young gentlemen, Challoner relates, were thrown into 
prison for attempting to remove them. According to the 
same historian, one of the martyr 's arms was preserved for 
many years at Pontoise. "Such," writes Fr. Garnet, "was 
the most happy end of this saint. May God make us all 
partakers of his merits." In his Franciscan Martyrology, 
Fr. Arturus a Monasterio, on July 22, commemorates Fr. 
Godfrey as a martyr of the Order. The cause of his beati- 
fication was introduced on December 4, 1886, his name ap- 

16. Very likely, Father Garnet was present at the execution. Three 
days later, we know, he penned his valuable letter. See Hope, p. 93, foot- 
note, on the authority of Challoner. 



212 FRANCISCANS AND 

pearing on the list of English martyrs, drawn up under 
that date and presented to the Sacred Congregation.^^ 

Venerable Godfrey Buckley closes the long line of Fran- 
ciscans who suffered and died for the faith in England, 
since the year 1534. The fact that he and Fr. John Stor- 
rens are the only Franciscans known to have undergone 
public martyrdom for the faith during the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, shows clearly the deplorable state of the province 
at the end of the sixteenth century. With a heavy heart, 
no doubt, Fr. William Stanney took over the official seal, 
little thinking that at that very moment God was fashioning 
the heart and mind of a young convert in the English Col- 
lege at Douai, who was destined one day to breathe new life 
and vigor into the declining province. 

17. See Acta Minorum, Vol. VI (1887), pp. 49 seq. 



PART SECOND 

UNDEE THE STUARTS 
1603-1649 








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Franciscans in England in Their Defense of Holy Mother Church 



CHAPTER I 

THE SECOND ENGLISH PROVINCE 

Its founder: Fr, John Gennings — His remarkable conversion 
from Protestantism — Priest and missionary in England 
— He enters the Franciscan Order — First steps toward 
the restoration of the English Province — Action of the 
general chapter in its hehalf — A friary at Doicai in 
Flanders — The province canonically established — Fr. 
John Gennings, the first provincial — Franciscan mis- 
sions in England — Extent of the province before 1649— 
Character of the friars — Their activity against Protes- 
tantism. 

The banishment of the Franciscans on June 12, 1559, 
and the subsequent seizure of their friaries was a blow from 
which the province never recovered. Although, as we have 
seen, a number of friars defied Queen Elizabeth and re- 
mained in England, the adverse conditions under which they 
labored, the long reign of Elizabeth, and the relentless 
severity of her measures against the Catholic Church and 
its institutions, necessarily effected the gradual extinction 
of the province. It is touching to read how for almost half 
a century these persecuted friars, surrounded by dangers 
and hardships of every description, sought to uphold at 
least the essentials of their holy Rule. The official seal of 
the province was handed on from one martyr or confessor 
to another, who thus maintained to some extent the regular 
succession of superiors and the obedience of the few scat- 
tered friars.^ Not less indicative of their zeal is the fact 
that, even at this time when to be a friar and a priest meant 
exile or imprisonment, English youths applied for admis- 

1. Mason, Gertamen Seraphicum, p. 19. 
215 



216 FRANCISCANS AND 

sion into the Order, and after completing their novitiate and 
studies joined the brethren in the missions.^ Such recruits, 
however, were few and far-between, while the older friars 
who had survived the first storm of persecution passed one 
by one to a better life. Hence, as years wore on without 
any abatement in the Government's hostile attitude, the 
number of friars grew smaller and smaller. In his Annates 
Minorum under the year 1587, Wadding commemorates the 
English province as having perished "by the fury of the 
heretics."^ Finally, in the statistics of the Order drawn 
up at the general chapter, in 1623, the name of the English 
Province is marked with a cross to indicate that canonically 
speaking it no longer existed.* 

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there lived in 
Litchfield Staffordshire, a Protestant family by the name of 
Gennings.^ They had two sons, Edmund and John. The 
elder of these, Edmund, at an early age, chanced to come 
under Catholic influence, which soon resulted in his return 
to the old faith. Not long after his conversion, he left Eng- 
land and came to Douai, where he studied for some years 
at the English College.^ On March 18, 1590, at Soissons, 
he was ordained priest. Although physically unfit for the 
arduous life of a missionary, he was anxious to labor among 
his countrymen, and immediately after his ordination he 
received permission to set out for England. 

At the time of Edmund's conversion, his brother John 
was a mere child. Reared and educated in Protestantism, 
nothing was farther from his mind than to follow in the 
footsteps of his brother. In fact, the news that Edmund 
had become a Catholic and, what was worse, a priest served 
only to steel the heart of John against everything that might 
influence his creed and mode of life. After the death of 

2. Parkinson, Antiquities 0/ the English Franciscans, p. 261. 

3. Annales Minorum, Vol. XXII, an. 1587, num. XC. 

4. stone. Faithful Unto Death, p. 124. 

5. The subsequent narrative is based on The Life and Death of Mr. 
Edmund Gennings, Priest, written by the martyr's brother John and pub- 
lished at Saint-Omer in 1614. The Life was reprinted in the Atinals of 
Our Lady of the Angels, Vol. XIII (1888), Nos. V-VII. 

6. See Douai Diaries, p. 14. 31. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 217 

his parents, he proceeded to London, where he soon fell a 
victim to the godless spirit of the times. Many a time, no 
doubt, the young man thought of his brother, never for a 
moment surmising what a great change he himself would 
shortly undergo. Much less did he suspect that the man 
whom one morning in the summer of 1590 he saw walking 
ahead of him by St. Paul's Church and anxiously looking 
round to see who followed, was none other than his own 
brother. A few days later, while walking along Ludgate 
Hill, he encountered the same person. This time, his curi- 
osity was roused. From the anxious look and bearing of 
the man, John concluded that something must be weighing 
on his mind. He was, therefore, not surprised, when the 
former approached and courteously greeted him. 

**What countryman are you?" queried the stranger. 

''I am a Staff ordshireman, " replied John. 

"And your name?" civilly demanded the other. 

"My name is John Gennings," the youth answered, be- 
coming interested. 

At these words, the troubled look on the countenance of 
the stranger vanished. He raised his eyes to heaven in an 
attitude of prayer. Then, smiling affectionately on the 
young man before him, he said calmly : 

" I am your kinsman ; my name is Ironmonger and I am 
very glad to see you well. "What has become of your brother 
Edmund?" 

The mention of this name touched John to the quick. 
That man, he mused, knows more about Edmund than his 
question implies. But he shrewdly repressed his feelings. 

"I heard," he answered with apparent coldness, "that 
my brother went to Rome to the Pope and became a notable 
Papist and a traitor to both God and his country. If he 
returns, he will infallibly be hanged. ' ' 

"I have heard," sweetly retorted the other, "that your 
brother is a very honest man and loves both the queen and 
his country, but God above all. But tell me, good cousin 
John, do you not know him if you see him ? " 



218 FRANCISCANS AND 

At this, the young man became alarmed. What, he re- 
flected, if this man were my brother. 

"No," he rejoined with evident uneasiness, ''I can not 
tell where he is. I greatly fear, however, that I have a 
brother a Papist priest, and that you are the man. If this 
is so, you will discredit me and all my friends. In this 1 
can never follow you, although in other matters I can respect 
you." 

When the good priest heard this spirited profession ol 
heresy from the lips of his erring brother, he could restrain 
his feelings no longer. 

''Indeed," he confessed, deeply touched, "I am your 
brother ; for your love have I taken great pains to seek you. 
I beg of you to keep secret the knowledge of my arrival." 

"Not for a world," John assured him, "will I disclose 
your return. But, ' ' he hastily added, ' ' I desire you to come 
no more unto me, for I fear greatly the danger of the law 
and the penalty of the new-made statute in concealing you. ' ' 

The two brothers had by this time entered a tavern, 
where, of course, it was impossible for Edmund to discuss 
that which above all had induced him to search for his 
brother. But, to his deep regret, he soon learned that John 
was a staunch and thoroughgoing Protestant, whom for the 
present there was little chance of bringing back to the fold 
of Christ. He told him, therefore, of his intended departure 
out of town, at the same time assuring him that within a 
month he would return and confer with him at length on 
some very important affair. How earnestly would Edmund 
then and there have sought to win his brother for Christ, if 
on parting he had foreseen that he would never see him 
again in this life. 

"And thus," wrote John in later years, "the two 
brothers parted, the one to his function of converting souls, 
the other to meditate how to corrupt his own; the one to 
spend his time in studying how to persuade, the other how 
to withstand; the one purposed to make haste back again, 
hoping to save a soul, brotherly love thereunto provoking; 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 219 

the other wishing his brother never to return, through fear 
of being converted, licentious liberty perverting in him 
brotherly love. ' ' 

Eager for service in the vineyard of the Lord, Edmund 
left London and went to the country districts. Many a time 
during the ensuing year, his thoughts reverted to his un- 
happy brother, whom he knew to be treading dangerous 
paths. He had promised to see him again within a month ; 
but for some reason or other he was prevented from going 
to London, much, we may readily suppose, to the satisfac- 
tion of John. Finally, in the fall of 1591, he could fulfill 
his promise. He came to London, trusting that this time 
he would find his brother better disposed. But God had 
decreed that something more than mere argument and per- 
suasion was to bring about the conversion of John. On 
November 8, while Edmund was saying Mass in the house 
of Mr. Swithin Wells in Gray's Inn Fields, Topcliffe sud- 
denly forced his way in and led the assembled Catholics off 
to Newgate prison. On December 4, they were brought to 
trial, pronounced guilty of high treason and condemned to 
death. Six days later, Edmund together with his host, Mr. 
Wells, was hanged, drawn, and quartered before the very 
house where he had celebrated his last Mass. 

Hardened in heresy and sin, John Gennings was deter- 
mined that Edmund's martyrdom for the faith, the news of 
which he received with cold indifference, should not in any 
way influence his own conduct. He was a Protestant and 
a Protestant he would remain. Wonderful, however, and 
irresistible are the eternal decrees of the Most High. How 
in the end the grace of God triumphed over the obstinacy 
of this young man, we shall let him relate in his own words. 

' ' This much loved brother, ' ' he wrote, referring to him- 
self in the third person, ' ' this John Gennings, being in Lon- 
don at the very time of his (Edmund's) execution, hearing 
of the same, rather rejoiced than any way bewailed the un- 
timely and bloody end of his nearest kinsman, hoping 
thereby to be rid of all persuasions which he suspected he 



220 FRANCISCANS AND 

should receive from him touching the Catholic Religion. 
But about ten days after his execution, toward night, having 
spent all that day in sport and jollity, being weary with 
play, he returned home, where to repose himself he went 
into a secret chamber. He was no sooner there set down, 
but forthwith his heart began to be heavy and his head 
melancholy, and he began to weigh how idly he had spent 
that day. Amidst these thoughts, there was presently repre- 
sented to his mind a strange imagination and apprehension 
of the death of his brother ; and amongst other things, how 
he had, not long before, forsaken all earthly pleasures, and, 
for his religion only, endured intolerable torments. Then 
within himself he made long discourses concerning his re- 
ligion and his brother's, comparing the Catholic manner of 
living with his and finding the one to embrace pain and 
mortification, and the other to seek pleasure ; the one to live 
strictly, and the other licentiously ; the one to fear sin, and 
the other to run into all kinds of sin ; he was struck with 
exceeding terror and remorse. He wept bitterly, desiring 
God, after his fashion, to illuminate his understanding, that 
he might see and perceive the truth. 

**0h, what great joy and consolation did he feel at that 
instant! What reverence on the sudden did he begin to 
bear to the Blessed Virgin, and to the Saints of God, which 
before he had never scarcely so much as heard of! What 
strange emotions, as it were inspirations, with exceeding 
readiness of will to change his religion, took possession of his 
soul! And what heavenly conception had he now of his 
brother's felicity! He imagined he saw him; he thought 
he heard him. In this ecstasy of mind, he made a vow upon 
the spot, as he lay prostrate on the ground, to forsake 
kindred and country, to find out the true knowledge of his 
brother ^s faith; which vow he soon after performed, and 
departed from England without giving notice to any of his 
friends, and went beyond the seas to execute his promise. ' ' 

The conversion of John Gennings to the faith of his 
forefathers was as sincere as it was miraculous. The image 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 221 

of his sainted brother, whose cruel martyrdom had at first 
left him so strangely indifferent, was now constantly before 
his mind. What only a few years since he had so greatly 
abhorred, Edmund's priestly profession, this same he now 
had a mind to embrace. He entered the English College at 
Douai, where he spent several years enriching his soul with 
that learning and virtue which so eminently qualified him 
for his later career. Finally, in 1607, he was ordained 
priest '' and the next year was permitted to depart for the 
missions in England. It was apparently about two years 
after his arrival that he met Fr. William Stanney, Com- 
missary of the English Franciscans. Very likely, he told 
the saintly friar the wonderful story of his conversion, and 
made known to him how ever since, he felt himself drawn 
to the religious life and to the Order of St. Francis. Fr. 
William soon detected the excellent qualities of the zealous 
priest and his sincere and deep devotion to the Order he 
wished to join. It was probably in 1610 that he vested him 
with the habit of St. Francis and sent him abroad to the 
friary at Ypres, there to be trained in the Franciscan mode 
of life and to study the Rule and the Statutes of the Order.^ 
Fr. John Gennings, as he was henceforth known, proved 
a true and worthy follower of St. Francis. The love he bore 
the Order to which he now belonged engendered in his heart 
a lively interest for everything that pertained to its glory 
and welfare. Hearing how the Franciscans, ever since the 
first outbreak of the religious persecution in his native land, 
had suffered and died for the faith, and how in consequence 
their province was well-nigh extinct, Fr. John conceived an 
ardent longing to restore the province to its one-time pres- 
tige and prosperity. A voice within seemed to tell him that 
Divine Providence had decreed its restoration and had 
chosen him as the instrument to accomplish it. This re- 

7. See Douai Diaries, p. 14, 34. 

8. "It does not appear quite certain," Thaddeus observes, "in what 
year Father Gennings joined tlie Franciscan Order. The dates given in 
his mortuary bill and his epitaph do not agree." (The Franciscans in 
England, p. 27, footnote.) 



:22 



FRANCISCANS AND 




Father John Gennings 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 223 

markable desire was not merely a transient notion that 
would fade and die with the first religious fervor. Evi- 
dently, it was the working of divine grace, growing stronger 
and more urgent as years went on. Such, at least, must 
have been the conviction of Fr. William. As commissary, 
he knew only too well into what a state of collapse the prov- 
ince had by this time fallen. Hence he was interested in 
his confrere's ceaseless reference to its possible restoration. 
Convinced of his ability as he was of his zeal and virtue, 
Fr. William delivered into his hands the ancient seal of the 
province,® thereby officially empowering him to work for its 
return to the place of distinction it once had enjoyed in the 
Order. 

Not long after, Fr. Gennings learned that several priests 
and students of the English College at Douai wished to be- 
come Franciscans and join the province he intended to re- 
store. Without delay he proposed the matter to Fr. Andrew 
a Soto, commissary general of the Belgian Provinces. The 
commissary favored the project and granted him all neces- 
sary faculties. Accordingly, in 1616, a residence was pro- 
cured at Gravelines, and the first community assembled con- 
sisting of six Fathers and three novices. At the same time, 
probably for lack of sufficient accommodations, other novices 
destined for the English Province spent the year of proba- 
tion in the friary at Ypres. 

On June 8, 1618, the Franciscans held their general 
chapter at Salamanca, in Spain. It was here that the work 
of Fr. John Gennings, till then sanctioned only by the com- 
missary general, received the approbation of the highest 
authorities of the Order. Among other things it was de- 
creed that, as Fr. John Gennings had proposed, a friary 
should be erected at Douai. The king of Spain offered no 
opposition, but preferred to leave the final decision to her 
highness, the archduchess Isabella, who was then govern- 
ing the Spanish Netherlands, and to the civil authorities of 
the university town. The archduchess, owing to the inter- 

9. Mason, p. 19 ; Thaddeus, p. 27. 



224 FRANCISCANS AND 

vention of her confessor, Fr. Andrew a Soto, readily gave 
her consent, while the magistrates of the city even granted 
a site on which to erect the friary and coUege.^^ 

On October 30, of the same year, the friars came to 
Douai and rented a private house, which for the present 
was to serve as convent. The next step of Fr. John Gen- 
nings was to solicit alms. Most generously did the nobility 
in England and the Benedictine abbots of St. Vedast and 
Marchienne respond to his appeal. The work on the build- 
ings, therefore, progressed quite rapidly, and in 1621, the 
friars could enter their new home, which they dedicated to 
St. Bonaventure. To the first community belonged FF. 
John Gennings, Antony Clarke (Clercke), Francis Daven- 
port, and Bonaventure Jackson, whom the commissary gen- 
eral appointed first superior. In 1624, the friary was made 
a guardianate with Fr. Bonaventure as first guardian. 

At the general chapter, in 1618, the English friars liv- 
ing in Belgium, England, and Scotland were placed under 
obedience to the commissary general of the Belgian Prov- 
inces. Probably that same year, or shortly after, Fr. John 
Gennings became Vicar of England.^^ It was in this 
capacity that, in 1625, he sent Fr. Francis Davenport to 
Rome, that he might interest the general chapter in the cause 
of the English friars. The result of this mission was a letter 
from the minister general, Fr. Bernardine de Senis, to Fr. 
John Gennings, by virtue of which the English Franciscans 
were associated into a custody, and the zealous vicar was 
appointed the first custos enjoying the full power of a pro- 
vincial.^^ Four years later, the minister general, moved by 
the entreaties not only of the Fathers but of leading Cath- 
olics, commissioned Fr. Joseph Bergagne, who had mean- 
while become commissary general, to assemble the English 
friars for the first provincial chapter. After some delay, 

10. Mason, pp. 21 seq. ; AnnaZes Minorum, Vol. XXV, an. 1618, num. 
VIII. 

11. Fr. William Stanney, Commissary of England, was still living at 
this time. It is probably owing to this fact that Fr. John Gennings was 
appointed Vicar and not Commissary of England. See Thaddeus, p. 238. 

12. For a copy of this letter see Mason, p. 23 ; Thaddeus, p. 37. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 225 

on the first Sunday of Advent, November 14, 1630, the meet- 
ing was held in the convent of the Franciscan Sisters at 
Brussels. First the letters patent of the minister general 
were read,^^ giving the English Province a regular existence 
and, as is customary in such cases, instituting the first pro- 
vincial superiors. Fr. John Gennings was declared Minister 
Provincial, and Fr. Francis Davenport Gustos, while FF. 
Bonaventure Jackson, Nicholas Day, Francis Bel, and 
Jerome Pickford were appointed Definitors. Thereupon, 
the assembled Fathers proceeded with the minor appoint- 
ments, of which a few are of interest. Fr. Francis Bel was 
elected guardian of St. Bonaventure 's friary at Douai and 
professor of the Hebrew language. FF. Francis Davenport 
and William a S. Augustino were appointed professors of 
theology, Fr. Lawrence a S. Edmundo professor of phil- 
osophy and master of novices. Among the regulations was 
a decree providing * ' that for the better and easier direction 
of the brethren and despatch of business, the Provincial 
when residing in England, may appoint a commissary, in- 
vested with his authority, for our brethren in Belgium ; and, 
when residing in Belgium, he may in like manner provide 
for England. "1* 

During the fifteen years that witnessed the realization of 
Fr. Genning's project, the missions in England had not been 
neglected. It was providential that the restoration of the 
province coincided with the accession of Charles I (1625- 
1649). Like his predecessor, the king was w^ell disposed 
toward his Catholic subjects; barring a few of the penal 
laws which the Puritan party compelled him to revive, the 
first years of his reign were generally speaking a period of 
religious peace and toleration. Naturally, Fr. John Gen- 
nings and his first companions availed themselves of these 
favorable conditions and extended the field of their activity. 
From the report of Panzani, the papal envoy to England, 
we learn that, in 1634, there were twenty Franciscans on 

13. For a copy of these letters patent see Mason, p. 34 ; Thaddeus, p. 48. 

14. For a copy of the official regulations drawn up at this chapter 
see Thaddeus, pp. 49 seq. 



226 FRANCISCANS AND 

the English missions.^^ Already at the first chapter, in 
1530, FF. Bonaventure Jackson and George Perrot could be 
assigned guardians of the London and Reading districts. 
By 1640, six new districts had been added; viz., Dorset 
(Dorchester) and York in 1632, Greenwich in 1634, Leices- 
ter in 1637, Oxford and Chichester in 1640. Seven years 
later, these vast mission territories were rearranged into 
eight guardianates ; viz., London, York, Cambridge, Bristol, 
Oxford, Newcastle, Worcester, and Greenwich. Of these, 
the first seven comprised thirty-eight various shires or 
counties, while Greenwich, though situated in the London 
district, had a guardian of its own. These districts were 
governed by so-called titular guardians, who looked after 
the friars and the missions under their jurisdiction and also 
took part in the provincial chapters. The minister pro- 
vincial or, in his absence, the commissary resided at London, 
where, too, after 1637, the provincial chapters were regularly 
held.^« 

Among the first Franciscans to be affiliated with the 
province were FF. Nicholas Day, Francis Bel, and John 
Baptist BuUaker; they were summoned from the Province 
of the Immaculate Conception in Spain, where they had 
entered the Order and made their profession. Other re- 
cruits, like FF. Jerome Pickford, George Perrot, and Paul 
Heath, came from the English College and from the neigh- 
borhood of Douai. Even on the missions in England, Fr. 
Gennings succeeded in gaining recruits for the ever increas- 
ing province. Thus we know that Fr. John Talbot, a secular 
priest, received the habit and spent his year of probation in 
England. Within a few years, the youthful province grew 
quite vigorous. This is evident from the fact, that in 1634, 
at the provincial chapter, the following were approved for 
preaching and hearing confessions : FF. William Anderton, 
Peter Cape, Christopher Colman, Augustine East, Lewis of 
Nazareth, Vincent of St. Blase, Francis of St. Bonaventure, 

15. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 450. 

16. Thaddeus, pp. 56 seq. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 227 

Bonaventure of St. Thomas, Lewis Wrest. In short, before 
the ill-fated year 1649, the province already numbered fifty- 
three members, not including the clerics who in that year 
were still pursuing their studies at Douai. By 1649, how- 
ever, seventeen members of the province had passed to their 
eternal reward. Among these were the five who suffered 
and died for the faith during the Puritan Revolution.^'' 

Like their brethren a century before, the members of the 
second province were faithful and zealous followers of St. 
Francis. At first they styled themselves of the Regular 
Ohservance, but later took the name of Recollects. ^'They 
were induced to make this change, ' ' says Thaddeus, ' ' chiefly 
by two considerations. One was that probably all the Pro- 
vinces over which the Commissary General presided were 
termed of Recollects; the other that there was already an 
establishment of Recollects at Douai. . . . The people, 
seeing that the English friars were of the same Order, gave 
them also the same name. . . . From the year 1676 the 
term Recollects is inserted in all their documents, and they 
also had the inscription of the old seal, Regularis Ohservan- 
tiaCy changed on a new one then made into Recollectorum."'^^ 
As Parkinson rightly observes, ''these Recollects were no 
separate body distinct from the rest of the Observants, but 
made up a part of it, giving themselves first to the con- 
templative life, as the most proper preparation for the 
better discharging the duties of the active; as also for the 
recovering their spirit when dissipated by preaching, teach- 
ing, ruling as superiors, or other similar exercises of obedi- 
ence and charity. "^^ How jealously they guarded the 
Franciscan vow of poverty, we see from the regulations 
drawn up at the provincial chapter in 1637. According to 
these, no friar was allowed to keep money about his person, 
nor to deposit it or to have it deposited without a written 
permission of the provincial. Furthermore, it was strictly 

17. The above data have been compiled from Thaddeus's list of the 
members of the Second Province, pp. 190-320. 

18. Thaddeus, p. 59. 

19. Quoted by Parkinson, p. 215. 



228 FRANCISCANS AND 

forbidden to accept or to assign for oneself, for the prov- 
ince, or for the friary at Douai any rents given as alms either 
temporarily or for life. Neither could money be * ' received 
as alms for things curious, precious or superfluous, in food, 
clothing, and the rest which may be called extravagant con- 
sidering the condition of the mission, according to the judg- 
ment of the provincial minister." ''The faithful observ- 
ance of these regulations," Thaddeus remarks, ''was un- 
doubtedly a great safeguard for the Franciscans on the 
English mission. ' '^^ Like all true sons of St. Francis, they 
also fostered a deep and tender devotion to Mary the Mother 
of God. To her they recommended the conversion of Eng- 
land ; and in 1632, it was decreed that daily on the missions 
the litany in her honor should be said after the principal 
Mass and the Tota pulchra after compline.^^ 

No less remarkable than the growth of the youthful prov- 
ince, was the activity its early members unfolded. While a 
number of them labored in Belgium, especially at Douai,^^ 
instructing and training the clerics for their future mis- 
sionary career and ministering to the spiritual and corporal 
needs of the people, others, after taking the prescribed 
oath,^^ set out for the English missions. The scenes of their 
activity in England were hallowed by the labors and suffer- 
ings of their brethren, who a hundred years before had 
resisted the fury of the first storm against the Church. It 
was, no doubt, the sacred memory of those Franciscan heroes 
that made their heirs forget the hardships and privations 
they encountered in the discharge of their duties. The 
Catholic faith could not be preached publicly ; it was merely 
tolerated, and that only because the king secretly favored 
the Catholics and as yet was powerful enough to oppose his 

20. Ttaddeus, p. 61. 

21. Ibidem, p. 79. 

22. The province had a residence also at Aire and at Bruges. Thad- 
deus, p. 58. 

23. By this oath, which the friars had to swear and sign before 
departing for the missions in England, they promised "that whenever they 
should be recalled, or sent back by their superiors, they would obey and 
conform to the command, circumstances notwithstanding." See Thad- 
deus, p. 58. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 229 

Puritan parliaments; while everyone knew that the queen 
professed and practiced the proscribed religion. Well 
regulated parishes and schools, of course, there were none. 
Accordingly, the friars' sphere of activity lay principally 
within the narrow confines of individual families. These 
they would visit from time to time and either minister to 
their spiritual needs or endeavor to bring them back to the 
faith of their forefathers. Already in 1638, regulations 
were made strictly obliging the friars frequently to cate- 
chize the children and others, either in their own homes or 
at the priest 's residence. 

Since these families were often widely scattered over the 
country, it was impossible for the friars to remain long in 
one place. Hence there was danger that the fruits of their 
visit would be lost before their next return. This naturally 
led to a phase of activity which speaks volumes for the zeal 
and learning of these early friars. To instruct and 
strengthen their scattered flock in the faith, they were wont 
to leave with the families their writings, in which they not 
only expounded Catholic doctrine but also defended it 
against the sectaries who were infesting the country. The 
literary productions of the friars previous to 1649 number 
no less than fifty books and pamphlets. These were printed 
in the friary at Douai where as early as 1638 a printing 
press was set up and placed in charge of Fr. Bonaventure a 
S. Thoma.^^ Unquestionably, the most prolific and versatile 
writer of this period was Fr. Paul Heath. His works, thirty 
in all, embrace Scotistic philosophy and theology, and many 
treatises on ascetical, historical, and controversial topics.^^ 
Fr. Bonaventure Jackon wrote the Manudiiction to the 
Palace of Truths a book of instruction for such as had wan- 
dered from the fold of Christ. Worthy of special mention 
is also the famous Cert amen Seraphicum {Seraphic Con- 
flict), written by Fr. Angelus Mason and published at 
Douai in 1649. It is in the main a detailed account of the 

24. Thaddeus, pp. 78, 301. 

25. For a list of these works see Mason, p. vil ; also Thaddeus, pp. 
106 seq. 



230 FRANCISCANS AND 

five Franciscans who were martyred for the faith during 
the last years of Charles I. The fact that its author was a 
contemporary and a fellow friar of the men whose life and 
martyrdom he recounts, makes this work especially valuable 
to the student of Franciscan history. The same may be 
said of two translations into English, St. Peter of Alcan- 
tara's On Mental Prayer, by Fr. Giles Willoughby, and St. 
Bona venture 's (?) Stimulus amoris (The Goad of Divine 
Love), by Fr. Augustine East. Among the writings of Fr. 
Christopher Colman we find a didactic poem entitled 
Death's Duel,^^ a book of verse on the religious controversies 
of the times, and the Life of St. Angela, a translation. That 
the friars were active in behalf of the Third Order of St. 
Francis is plain from the fact that Fr. Francis Bel wrote 
a treatise on its Rule, while Fr. Angelus Mason composed a 
manual in Latin and English for the use of Tertiaries. 

Needless to say, the influence of these zealous and learned 
friars roused the hatred of the Puritans, which in the case 
of one friar at least broke out into open hostility. As early 
as 1633, Fr. Bonaventure Jackson, who three years before 
had been appointed guardian of the London district, was a 
prisoner in Newgate. This we learn from a letter, dated 
December 18, 1633, in which the writer, a secular priest 
laboring in the metropolis, states that Fr. Bonaventure was 
among the four prisoners ''within this fortnight . . . 
released upon bond." Furthermore, the Certamen 
Seraphicum says of him that "having been called to Eng- 
land by Father Gennings, (he) labored with great fruit of 
salvation, earning praise and gratitude, and having suf- 
fered persecution, affliction and imprisonment, died an 
eminent confessor. ' '^^ 

Another Franciscan whose zeal for the true faith and 
influence over the ruling classes proved a constant menace 
to Protestantism was Fr. Francis Davenport. He was un- 
questionably one of the ablest theologians and controver- 

26. The poem Is reprinted in Franciscan Biographies, published by the 
Catholic Truth Society. 

27. Thaddeus, p. 75. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 231 

sialists of his time. Mason describes him as a most pro- 
found and versatile Scotist,^^ while Wood assures us that 
''he was excellently well versed in school divinity, in the 
fathers and councils, in philosophers, and in ecclesiastical 
and profane histories ; ... all which accomplishments 
made his company acceptable to great and worthy per- 
sons. "^^ As chaplain to Queen Maria Henrietta, the con- 
sort of Charles I, he was frequently at court, where on ac> 
count of his erudition and pleasing manners, he commanded 
the respect not only of the queen and her Catholic house- 
hold but also of the king and of Laud, archbishop of Canter- 
bury. So great, indeed, was his influence that, in 1640, the 
House of Commons sent a complaint to the Lords, deploring 
the rapid increase of Popery in the realm and ascribing it 
to the writings and conferences of this formidable friar. 
The one desire of his heart was to effect a reunion of Eng- 
land with the Holy See. Accordingly, in his Deus, Natura, 
Gratia, a dogmatical treatise on divine grace, he brought 
by way of appendix an explanation of the Thirty-Nine 
Articles. In interpreting these, however, he was more zeal- 
ous than judicious, making certain concessions to heresy and 
schism which the Church could not countenance. The book 
was, therefore, severely criticized by both the Catholic and 
the Protestant party, and the well-meaning friar had to 
undergo the humiliation of seeing it placed on the index 
by the Spanish Inquisition. It would probably have met a 
similar fate at Rome but for the intervention of Panzani, 
the papal envoy in London. **Thus,'* to quote Stone, ''it 
was possible to go too far even in a good cause ; Rome saw 
what we now see plainly, but what the moving characters in 
the drama could not see. The nation, instead of being ripe 
for conversion, was in reality drifting away from the 
Church, and a Puritan reaction was about to set in, almost 
as disastrous in its consequences as Henry the Eighth's 
schism, or Elizabeth 's apostacy. ' '^° 

28. Mason, p. 81. 

29. Quoted by Dodd, Church History of England, Vol. Ill, p. 105. 

30. Stone, p. 120. 



CHAPTER II 

VENERABLE WILLIAM WARD, FRANCISCAN TERTIARY 

Troubl(ms reign of diaries I — Puritan animosity against 
^^ Papists'^ — William Ward, a Protestant at Oxford — 
Returns to the old faith — Ordained priest — Seized on 
his return to England — Three years in prison — Thirty 
years of unceasing toil and hardship — A true follower 
of St. Francis — In Newgate for being a priest — Sen- 
tenced to death — Martyred at Tyhurn, 

After three years of constant quarreling with the Com- 
mons, who demanded that the penal laws against Catholics 
be enforced, Charles I, in 1628, prorogued parliament and 
for the next twelve years ruled without it. During this 
period, as we have seen. Catholics enjoyed an interval of 
comparative peace and toleration. The Puritans, however, 
embittered by the consequent increase of ''popery," left 
nothing undone to undermine the authority of Charles and 
to bring archbishop Laud of Canterbury to justice for trea- 
sonable leanings toward Rome. To create a spirit of fana- 
ticism among the lower classes, unscrupulous pamphleteers 
deluged the country with their writings, in which they railed 
at the Pope and the Church and represented the king as 
a secret friend and protector of the detested Catholics. Had 
Charles been a strong and resolute character, his game of 
double-dealing would have neither emboldened the agitators 
of Puritanism nor undermined the throne on which he 
thought himself securely seated. He made principle sub- 
servient to policy, and this temporizing attitude proved his 
undoing. 

Matters came to a head when, in 1640, the threatening 
attitude of the Scots compelled the king to reconvene parlia- 

232 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 233 

ment. Now the Puritans, who controlled the House of Com- 
mons, had an opportunity to aim a deadly blow at the 
Church. At once they raised the cry of "no popery, ' ' and 
flatly refused to vote the necessary war subsidies unless the 
king rigorously enforced the penal laws against the Cath- 
olics, whom they falsely accused of favoring and aiding the 
Scots. Deserted by the terrified Lords, Charles reluctantly 
consented and ''gave orders that all Catholics should quit 
the court, and be expelled from the army; that the houses 
of recusants should be searched for arms; and that the 
priests should be banished from the realm within thirty 
days. ' '^ But, by thus giving way to the fanatic Commons, 
the king signed his own death warrant. With unexampled 
insolence, they now publicly assailed their sovereign with 
keen invectives for having favored and protected Catholics, 
contrary to existing laws. From religious fanaticism the 
popular mind went over to political revolutionism; to the 
cry of ' ' no popery ' ' was added the clamor for ' ' no royalty. ' ' 
What followed is well known. ' * A century of revolution, ' ^ 
Stone aptly remarks, ''begun with a king's act of defiance 
hurled at the highest spiritual authority on earth, was end- 
ing with a people's renunciation of all kingly authority."^ 
The public execution of the unhappy monarch, in 1649, is 
one of the saddest and most shocking events in English 
history, and shows how the allegiance of a people to a tem- 
poral sovereign stands and falls with their allegiance to him 
whom Christ vested with supreme authority in matters 
spiritual. 

Having seized the reigns of government, the Puritan 
"army of saints," under the cloak of zeal for "pure re- 
ligion ' ' and civil liberty, immediately began a bloody perse- 
cution of Catholics who deemed it their duty to support the 
king as the embodiment of lawful authority. During this 
religious and political upheaval, five Franciscans suffered 
death for the faith. Before detailing their life and martyr- 

1. Lingard, History of England, Vol. VII, p. 229. 

2. Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 211. 



234 FRANCISCANS AND 

dom, however, we must acquaint the reader with one who, 
though not a member of the province, still, as a Tertiary of 
St. Francis, deserves more than a passing notice in the story 
of the English Franciscans.^ His saintly life and death 
will show how the spirit of St. Francis was breathing in 
England even at a time when the once glorious province had 
fallen to ruin. 

F. William Ward * was born of Protestant parents about 
the year 1560, at Thornby in Westmoreland.^ Of his early 
life nothing is known beyond the fact that his parents, who 
were of the wealthy class, had him educated at Oxford, 
where after completing his studies he was for seven years 
associated with Brasenose College. The renewed hostility 
of Queen Elizabeth against the Church of Rome and the 
subsequent sufferings of the Catholics must have made a 
deep and lasting impression on him. Examining the tenets 
of the proscribed religion and seeking the counsel of Cath- 
olic friends, he gradually perceived on which side truth and 
justice lay. It is probable that to avoid opposition on the 
part of his Protestant family, who would surely have re- 
sented his contemplated conversion to Catholicism, William 
accompanied Mr. Button, a Catholic gentleman, to Spain 
and there embraced the religion of his forefathers. He left 
England a skeptical Protestant, he returned a devout and 
practical Catholic. In time, Dodd informs us, he even suc- 
ceeded in bringing his mother to the fold of Christ. Indeed, 

3. That Venerable William Ward belonged to the Third Order of St 
Francis is sufficiently attested by Mason in his Certamen Seraphicum, 
On page 50, he makes mention "of the martyrdom of Mr. Ward, a priest 
of the venerable secular clergy, whom I shall justly call our confr&re, as 
the cord of St. Francis, with which on the scaffold he was girded next to 
the skin, amply testifies." 

4. His real name, according to The Catholic Encyclopedia, was Web- 
ster. Under this name he is also registered in the Douai Diaries. 

5. Our sources of information regarding his life and martyrdom are 
the following : Dodd, Church History of England, Vol. Ill, p. 95 ; his chief 
sources were the Athenae Oxonienses of Anthony Wood and a manuscript 
account of the martyr's life written by a fellow priest of his acquaintance. 
— ^Hope, Franciscan Martyrs in England, pp. 117 seq. : the author seems to 
have drawn chiefly from De Marsys, who was an eye-witness of the martyr- 
doms he relates. — Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 128, who refers the 
reader to Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests. — Spillmann, Eatho- 
likenverfolgung in England, Part IV, p. 23, who likewise drew from Chal- 
loner. — The CathoUc Encyclopedia, Vol. XV, p. 552. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 235 

so openly did he practice his religion that he was repeatedly 
arrested and imprisoned. This, however, only confirmed 
him in the faith and filled his heart with a burning zeal to 
take the step he had long been contemplating. 

In 1604, he left for the continent ; and on September 16, 
the authorities of the English College at Douai admitted 
him as a candidate of the priesthood, despite the fact that 
he was already over forty years of age. On June 1, 1608, 
he was ordained priest ; and a few months later, on October 
14, he again set sail for England.^ The ship, however, was 
driven to the coast of Scotland. English harbors at that 
time were infested with spies eager to detect a priest among 
the landing voyagers. F. William Ward did not escape 
their vigilance. He was seized and without much ado thrown 
into a dark and loathsome prison. Here he suffered for 
three years, until by some chance or other he was set free. 
Thereupon, he departed for his native land, where he soon 
engaged in ministering to the needs of the scattered 
Catholics. 

The remaining thirty years of his life, from 1611 to 1641, 
were spent chiefly in and about London, the very hotbed of 
irreligion and persecution. They represent one long un- 
broken period of indefatigable zeal and devotion, beset with 
untold trials that would have discouraged a less fervent and 
self-denying spirit. Time and again, the heroic priest was 
arrested, imprisoned, and banished. His biographers tell 
us that the time he spent in the various prisons aggregated 
no less than twenty years. But nothing could quench the 
fire that glowed in his priestly soul. He always returned to 
his beloved flock with renewed zeal, anxiously hoping that 
the day would come when he would be permitted to seal his 
faith with his blood. 

It was probably at the time when the English Fran- 
ciscans undertook the restoration of their province, that F. 
William Ward became acquainted with the friars and 
joined the Third Order of St. Francis. His private no less 

6. See Douai Diaries, pp. 19, 24, 285. 



236 FRANCISCANS AND 

than his public life was that of a true and wholesouled 
Tertiary. Personal sanctity lent special weight to his 
priestly exhortations, so that he was one of the most popular 
priests on the mission. Like a true follower of St. Francis, 
he loved and practiced holy poverty in a heroic degree and 
chose the poorest and meanest districts of London and its 
vicinity as the field of his activity. Although he possessed 
abundant riches, he was so niggardly with himself in food 
and clothing that his friends ascribed it to an avaricious 
spirit. How different would have been their verdict had 
they known that he was denying himself the comforts of 
life only to have more to bestow on his cherished poor. 
These he would seek out in their wretched hovels and with 
loving condescension minister to their spiritual and material 
needs. 

Naturally of a somber, almost repulsive disposition, F. 
William Ward was known to be a very exacting confessor 
and spiritual director. Still, his impartial frankness and 
justice toward all who came to him won their confidence. 
Catholics, rich and poor, eagerly sought his advice and con- 
solation in those dark days of political and religious dis- 
sensions. Even ladies of rank placed themselves under his 
direction, declaring that, despite the severity with which he 
censured sin and inculcated virtue, they preferred him to 
all other confessors. 

Thus for thirty years, frequently interrupted by im- 
prisonment and exile, this heroic Tertiary priest braved the 
hardships of the times in the discharge of his sacred office. 
Meanwhile, the endless agitation of the Puritans against the 
king and against the Catholics grew more and more aggres- 
sive, so that by 1640 it became evident that another bloody 
persecution would break out. F. William Ward viewed 
these conditions with mingled feelings of sorrow and joy. 
He grieved at the thought of the sufferings and hardships 
it would again create for the helpless Catholics; but his 
heart rejoiced over the prospect it gave him of yet winning 
the coveted martyr's crown. When, therefore, his nephew, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 237 

who was likewise a priest on the mission, requested him to 
have regard for his old age, to quit London, and to flee to 
the country, where a safe refuge had been prepared for him, 
the intrepid priest of eighty years earnestly replied that he 
was not like the hireling who flies at the approach of the 
wolf and abandons his flock to its ravenous fury; only im- 
prisonment and death could separate him from those whose 
shepherd he had been these many years. He was willing 
to brave death for the good of his people. 

In March, 1641, parliament issued a warrant for the 
arrest of all priests who should be found in England after 
April 7. Among those who defied the government and re- 
mained with their scattered flock was F. William Ward. 
His frequent visits to the house of Mr. Wooton, one of his 
nephews, had long roused the suspicion of a certain Mr. 
Thomas Mayhew (Mayo), an apostate Catholic and a notori- 
ous priest catcher. About midnight, on July 15, 1641, this 
worthless creature without warning entered the house, 
forced his way into the apartments of the aged priest, and 
having literally dragged him out of bed, hurried him off to 
Newgate prison. Eight days later he was tried at the Old 
Bailey in London. Among the witnesses that deposed 
against him was Mayhew. He had known the prisoner for 
a long time, he declared, and had received the sacraments 
of Penance and Communion at his hands. After hearing 
two more witnesses, who likewise declared they knew him 
to be a priest, the judge asked the prisoner whether these 
accusations were true. 

* * No one, ' ' came the fearless reply, ' ' is obliged to accuse 
himself. But if you wish to arrive at the truth and to con- 
vict me, produce witnesses without reproach, and not like 
this Mayhew, who may well lie before men since he has 
broken the faith which he vowed to God. ' ' 

In a similar manner, he could have discomfited the other 
witnesses. But fear of again foregoing the martyr 's crown 
sealed his lips. His heart leaped for joy, therefore, when 
the jury after a brief consultation returned a verdict of 



238 FRANCISCANS AND 

guilty and the judge condemned him to be hanged, drawn, 
and quartered on the following Monday. 

On Sunday, the day before his martyrdom, he obtained 
leave to converse with a priest who was also a prisoner. 
What passed between them we can readily imagine. Early 
next morning, F. William Ward said holy Mass and admin- 
istered Holy Communion to a number of imprisoned Cath- 
olics. His aged brow, otherwise grave and austere, was now 
radiant with joy, reflecting the peace and happiness that 
reigned in his soul. When offered a better coat than he was 
wont to wear, he said cheerfully : 

* ' You are right to dress me better than usual, since I am 
going to a more splendid banquet and a more joyful wedding 
than any at which I have ever been present." 

He gave a twenty-shilling piece to the jailer, who on 
leaving said blandly : 

' * Good bye, Mr. Ward. I hope we shall meet again, in 
heaven. ' ' 

* ' By no means, ' ' replied the martyr, ' ' unless you change 
your life and become a Catholic. This is the truth, in de- 
fense of which I am about to shed my blood. ' ' 

About eight o'clock, the holy priest was led from his 
dungeon, fastened to a hurdle, and dragged to Tyburn. 
Many of the bystanders wept at sight of the feeble old man 
on his bed of pain. 

'*Why do you weep, my son?" he said to a young man 
whom he recognized as one of his penitents. 

* * For love of you, my father, ' ' came the touching reply. 

*'If you love me," returned the martyr calmly, ''weep 

not for my death. I can yet live if I will, but it is my joy 

to die for this cause, and therefore you have no reason to 

weep." 

Having arrived at the place of execution, he was taken 
from the hurdle and ordered to mount the cart that stood 
beneath the gibbet. Then turning to the presiding officer, 
he said in broken accents: 

"Mr. Sheriff, I would have you all here assembled un- 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 239 

derstand that I am condemned to death for being a Romish 
priest, although no proof of it was adduced in court. Hence 
they have dealt unjustly with me. Now, however, I pro- 
claim of my own free will that for well-nigh forty years I 
have been a priest, for which I thank God. That on this 
account I have been condemned to death, fills me with joy 
and I deem it a great distinction, because I die for my Lord 
and Master, Jesus Christ." 

When the sheriff offered him life and liberty if he would 
renounce his faith, the valiant champion beaming with joy 
exclaimed : 

**If God had given me a thousand lives, I should deem 
myself happy to sacrifice them all for my priesthood and 
the Catholic Church." 

Upon this the sheriff objected that he was to die not for 
being a Catholic, but for seducing the people. 

*'I have seduced no one," replied the martyr with in- 
dignation, ''but I have led many in the way of salvation. 
"Would to God that I had converted more — nay, even all 
England ! Believe, I entreat you, that it is the love which 
I have for you that makes me speak thus ; for if you wish 
to enter into Paradise you must embrace the Catholic re- 
ligion, which was so long revered by your ancestors. ' ' 

When asked whether he was related to Bishop Ward of 
Gloucester, he replied in the negative, adding that his real 
name was William Webster. 

Seeing now that the executioners were making ready to 
carry out the sentence, the venerable priest knelt down and 
prayed. At last, the sheriff interrupted him asking whether 
there was anj^thing he wished. 

''Yes," he replied with a look to heaven, "from all my 
heart I shall pray God to bless the king, the queen, and the 
whole royal family as also the government, the people, and 
the entire kingdom. Then I should like to give a little alms 
to needy Catholics, but I see none here." 

"Give it to the executioner," cried the people, "that he 
might deal mercifully with you." 



240 FRANCISCANS AND 

' * What mercy can he show me, ' ' retorted the martyr with 
a smile, pointing to the gibbet and the fire. * ' Nor, ' ' he con- 
tinued serenely, " do I even desire him to lessen the merit 
of my sufferings. ' ' 

Thereupon, he handed the sheriff forty shillings to be 
distributed among needy Catholics. To the executioner he 
gave a half crown, while the driver of the hurdle received 
two shillings. Then throwing his ring, breviary, and hand- 
kerchief to the crowd, he permitted the rope to be placed 
about his neck. When the cart with a sudden jolt began 
to move from under his feet, he raised his eyes to heaven 
and exclaimed, ''Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, receive my soul!*' 
Immediately he was cut down and while still living sub- 
•jected to the cruel and inhuman butchery. Seizing his 
heart the executioner held it up to the excited rabble and 
cried, ''Behold the heart of a traitor!" But the valiant 
martyr was beyond the reach of human torture and insult. 
In the mansions of the King of kings, he was already in 
possession of that glorious crown for which he had labored 
and yearned so many years.^ 

7. His name appears on the list of English martyrs whose cause of 
beatification was introduced on December 4, 1886. See Acta Minorum, 
an. VI (1*87), p. 51. 



CHAPTER III 

FR. CHRISTOPHER COLMAN, O. P. M. 

Of Catholic parentage — Student at the Jesuit College in 
Douai — Returns to England — The Catholic gentleman — 
Joins the Franciscans in Douai — Ordained priest — Sum- 
moned to England — Arrested and released — Missionary 
labors — The persecution revived — Fr. Christopher one 
of the first to he seized — In Newgate — Condemned to 
death — Execution delayed and prevented by the war — 
Sufferings and death in prison. 

We have seen how, despite the unsettled times, the Eng- 
lish Franciscans united once more into a province and 
eagerly cast in their lot with the Jesuits and the secular 
clergy on the missions. Neither the stress of present hard- 
ships nor the forebodings of another war on the Church 
could unman these champions of the Cross. Like their fellow 
friars a century before, they were ready to suffer all for the 
restoration of Christ's kingdom in unhappy England. 
Their zeal for the furtherance and preservation of the faith 
brought them in touch with all classes of society. Though 
their forces were scant, yet it was owing in no small measure 
to their ever widening activity and injluence that the anti- 
Catholic hatred of the Puritans at last burst forth into an 
all-consuming flame. Hence, when the news of the martyr- 
dom of the well-known and much-esteemed Tertiary priest 
Venerable William Ward reached the friars, they clearly 
saw what was in store for them and by redoubled prayers 
and penances prepared themselves for the inevitable con- 
flict. Their provincial at the time was Fr, George Perrot, 
a man whom the death records of the province commemorate 

241 



242 



FRANCISCANS AND 




Fr. Christopher Colman, O. F. M. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 243 

as ''a lover of the brethren."^ He, too, was aware of the 
calamity that would soon befall the youthful province ; and 
we may imagine how, like another John Forest, he sounded 
the alarm among his devoted subjects, exhorting them to 
remain loyal and steadfast in the hour of trial. 

History tells us with what courage the persecuted friars 
faced the enemy. Only after the executioner's knife had 
done its deadly work, did these fearless shepherds of souls 
cease to labor for the well-being of their beloved flock. Be- 
tween October, 1642, and August, 1646, four members of 
the province mounted the scaffold and died for the faith, 
while one friar at last succumbed to the hardships of prison 
life.^ Though small in itself, this number must appear con- 
siderable, if one remembers that at the time hardly more 
than thirty Franciscans were engaged on the missions in 
England, and that before the year 1649, in all only twenty- 
one Catholics underwent public martyrdom for the faith.^ 

Among the first victims of Puritan animosity and in- 
tolerance toward the Church of Rome was Fr. Christopher 
Colman.* He descended from an ancient and prominent 
Catholic family whose ancestral estate lay at Cannock in 
Staffordshire.^ The parents of the future Franciscan friar, 
whose baptismal name was Walter, remained true to the 
faith of their forefathers and taught their son from early 
youth to value virtue higher than worldly wealth and dis- 
tinction. Anxious to give him a thoroughly Catholic educa- 
tion, they defied the penal laws and sent him to the English 
College at Douai. Walter must have been about fifteen 

1. Thaddeus, The Franciscans in England, p. 286. 

2. For the life and martyrdom of these five friars, that ■will engage 
our attention in the subsequent chapters, our chief source of information 
Is the Certamen SerapMcum, written and published in 1649 by their con- 
frere and contemporary, Fr. Angelus Mason. 

3. This number is based on Spillmann's Katholikenverfolgung in Eng- 
land, Part IV, pp. 235-320. Of these twenty-one martyrs, nine were secular 
priests, three Benedictines, four Jesuits, four Franciscans and one a layman. 

4. Thaddeus has embellished the Franciscan Biographies with an 
account of this friar, from which we have freely drawn for the present 
sketch. 

5. Thaddeus supposes his grandfather to have been the Walter Col- 
man whom the records of the royal visitation, in 1583, represent as having 
forfeited the title of armiger and the right to armorial bearings, probably 
because he rejected the spiritual supremacy of Queen Elizabeth. 



244 FRANCISCANS AND 

years of age when he accompanied F. William Eaton 
(Eiton), a priest, and two students to the continent. On 
June 20, 1585, he entered the college and registered, as was 
customary at the time, under the assumed name of Combe.^ 
The ensuing year, however, on November 28, he was called 
home, perhaps, as Thaddeus suggests, on account of the ill- 
ness or death of his mother. In 1593, his father entered 
upon a second marriage. Thereupon, Walter returned to 
the college at Douai. 

After completing his studies, Walter went back to Eng- 
land, probably because his father being advanced in years 
wished him, as the eldest of his sons, to assume charge of 
the family estate. Wealth and social standing did not 
hinder him from closely following the dictates of his faith 
and conscience. Hence, he soon learned from experience 
what difficulties loyal Catholics had to contend with in the 
exercise of their religion. This knowledge in turn streng- 
thened or, at least, engendered in his heart the desire to 
devote himself entirely to the service of the Church by re- 
nouncing worldly pleasures and promises for the nobler but 
wearier life of a missionary priest. Apparently, the only 
obstacle that as yet prevented him from taking this step was 
a loving and dutiful regard for his aged father.'^ About 
1620, however, his father passed to a better life. Now 
Walter was free to answer what he believed to be a call from 
above. 

It is very probable that during his sojourn in Flanders, 
Walter heard it told how Edmund Gennings had laid down 
his life for the faith and how John, the martyr's brother, 
had thereby been converted to Catholicism. Like him, these 
two brothers were natives of Staffordshire, a circumstance 
that must have roused his interest all the more, especially 
when he learned that John Gennings had become a priest 
and Franciscan and had undertaken the restoration of his 

6. Presumably an abbreviation of Comberford, the name of his mother. 
See the Douai Diaries, pp. 206, 213. 

7. It is reported that a Walter Colman, presumably the martyr's 
father, was still living in 1617. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 245 

Order in England. It was, therefore, natural that he should 
decide to proceed to Douai and seek admission into the 
newly founded Franciscan friary. Accordingly, he settled 
his tempgral affairs and about the year 1625 ^ left England 
to execute his design. We can imagine the joy and gratifica- 
tion of Fr. John Gennings, when he was informed by Fr. 
Francis Davenport, then superior of the friary at Douai, 
that Walter Colman had arrived and desired to join the 
Franciscan Order. Needless to say, he readily granted the 
necessary faculties for his reception, and in due time the 
superior clothed the worthy postulant with the habit of St. 
Francis and bestowed on him the name of Christopher of 
St. Clare. 

Despite the fact that he was already over fifty years of 
age and a man of learning, refinement, and experience, he 
vied with the youngest member of the community in ready 
submission to his superiors. For him the year of novitiate 
was in very deed a time of probation. Acts of penance and 
mortification were not wanting to prove his constancy and 
sincerity. But nothing could be too humiliating for him 
who had come to serve God and not himself. During his 
novitiate, an incident occurred that shows how he fostered 
the spirit of childlike obedience and heroic penance. En- 
dowed by nature with a taste and talent for poetry, he had 
written for his own edification a number of verses on death. 
Hearing of this, the novice master told him one day to get 
the poem and to read it to the community during recreation. 
Gladly the novice obeyed. Hardly had he finished reading 
the poem, when he was told to throw it into the fire. That 
such a demand was mortifying for a man of his age and 
attainments goes without saying. But, to the edification of 
the assembled brethren, he obeyed wit-hout the least sign of 

8, In support of this date, Thaddeus argues that Mason In his Cer- 
tamen Seraphiciim "seems to use the term Preses purposely instead of 
Guardian. Father Bonaventure Jackson was Guardian at Douai in 1624 ; 
but, as he was wanted on the English Missions, Father Davenport was 
appointed to succeed him, apparently with the title of Preses, until the 
year 1626, when, at the meeting of the Officials of the Province, he was 
made Gvordion." 



246 FRANCISCANS AND 

reluctance or discontent. After his novitiate, he spent the 
next few years in prayer and study. At last, in 1633 (or 
1634), he was raised to the priesthood, whereupon Fr. John 
Gennings summoned him to the missions in England. He 
had hardl}^ set foot on English soil, when government spies 
suspecting his character placed him under arrest. Later, 
on searching him, they found that below the secular dress 
he wore a queer sort of shirt. 

''What kind of man is this," they exclaimed, "who 
travels in such clothes?" 

How differently the holy man would have fared, had 
his enemies known that the object of the uncivil remark 
was the tunic of a Franciscan friar. But his ready wit was 
equal to the emergency. 

"Are you not ashamed," he fell in with seeming indigna- 
tion, "thus to display the poverty and distress of a gentie- 
man who has spent all his money in traveling, and now re- 
turns poor to his native land ? ' ' 

This bold rejoinder, however, did not allay the suspicion 
of his enemies. They would, at least, satisfy themselves as 
to the religious convictions of the prisoner and demanded 
that he take the oath of allegiance.^ Now, of course, there 
was no alternative. With equal intrepidity he declared that 
he was a Catholic and would never swear the tendered oath ; 
whereupon he was led off to prison. 

This time, it seems, the confinement of Fr. Christopher 
was of short duration. The intolerant Puritans were not as 
yet in full control of affairs. The imprisoned friar found 
means to communicate with former friends, who readily 
used their wealth and influence in his behalf. On obtaining 
his liberty, he immediately proceeded on his journey to 
London, where he exercised the functions of his sacred 
ministry. As during the first years of his religious life, so 

9. This oath, enacted with other penal laws in 1606 after the Gun- 
powder Plot, had to be taken by all who refused to swear that they were 
not Catholics. In 1625, the king was forced by the House of Commons 
to reenforce the oath. It had been condemned by a papal brief as partly 
derogatory to the rights of the Holy See. Hence, Catholics were bound in 
conscience to reject it. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 247 

now the earnest truths about death formed the constant 
topic of his meditations. After his novitiate, he rewi-ote 
with the consent of his superiors the poem he had been told 
to consign to the flames. On the mission, this child of his 
pensive muse must have still been very dear to him; for, 
despite the cares of his sacred calling, he completed the 
poem and published it. It is entitled Death's Duel and is 
dedicated to the Queen of England, Maria Henrietta. ' ' In 
this poem," Mason remarks, "he teaches all men the way 
and manner of dying well; he invites all to meditate ear- 
nestly on death ; graphically he describes the vanity of this 
deceitful world and with no little elegance of style vividly 
depicts how vice must be shunned and virtue practiced. "^° 

After laboring a number of years in England, Fr. 
Christopher yearned for the more retired and regular life 
of the convent, and obtained leave to return for a time to 
Douai. Here, apart from the bustle of the world, he divided 
his time between prayer and study. When free from the 
religious exercises of the community, he worked at a poem on 
the controversies of the times and translated the life of St. 
Angela Merici into English. Apparently, he tarried at 
Dou^i only a year or so, and then refreshed in soul and body 
again departed for the missions. "His wit and brilliant 
talents," says Hope, "his placid and cheerful temper, and 
the polished manners which he had acquired in his social 
position in the world, made him generally popular, and 
helped on his missionary work."" For a long time, we are 
told, even professional priest catchers failed to detect the 
real character of the handsome and well-dressed gentleman 
whom every now and then they chanced to meet on the 
streets of the metropolis. 

For several years, Fr. Christopher braved the perils that 
beset his holy profession. The Puritan faction had grad- 
ually become more and more aggressive until, in the spring 
of 1641, the Commons compelled Charles to decree a rigor- 

10. Mason, p. 218. 

11. Hope, Franciscan Martyrs in England, p. 126. 



248 FRANCISCANS AND 

ous enforcement of the penal laws against Catholics. Among 
the first priests apprehended and imprisoned was Fr. 
Christopher. After repeated hearings before various magis- 
trates, the zealous friar together with five secular priests 
and two Benedictines was placed, on December 8 of the 
same year, at the bar of the Old Bailey. Here, a certain 
Wadsworth, an apostate Catholic, testified on oath that he 
tnew Fr. Christopher to be a Franciscan and priest, having 
seen him clad with the habit of the Franciscans in their 
friary at Douai. On this evidence, the judge declared the 
accused guilty of treason and condemned him to be hanged, 
drawn, and quartered on the following Monday. There- 
upon the aged friar and his six ^^ companions were brought 
back to Newgate. 

During the remainder of the week, while they lay in 
prison preparing themselves for the final conflict, the French 
ambassador made efforts for their release. Accordingly, the 
king reprieved the sentence of the court and asked the ad- 
vice of both houses of parliament regarding a pardon for 
the condemned priests, suggesting that it might quiet the 
rising rebellion in Ireland. The Puritan Commons proved 
obstinate and demanded that at least four of the priests, 
among them Fr. Christopher, be dealt with according to 
the law. Then, after much debating, both houses voted the 
death of all six,^^ and in the end the king found it expedient 
to yield. ' ' If you think the execution of these persons, ' ' his 
message read, *'so very necessary to the great and pious 
work of reformation, we refer it wholly to you, declaring 
hereby, that upon such your resolution signified to the min- 
isters of justice, our warrant for their reprieve is deter- 
mined, and the law to have its course.'^ In this way, the 
weak monarch shook the responsibility from his own shoul- 
ders and left the innocent victims of his temporizing policy 
to the mercy of the Puritans. As yet, however, these were 
not so weU established in power as to proceed without royal 

12. One of their number had been acquitted, probably for lack of 
evidence. 

13. One of the condemned priests had already died. 



THE PKOTESTANT REVOLUTION 249 

sanction. Hence, it seems, the affair was dropped.^* Soon, 
also, the Civil War broke out, during which the six priests 
were either forgotten or purposely left in their dismal dun- 
geon to die a more terrible death by disease and starvation. 

Well-nigh intolerable must have been the lot of Fr. 
Christopher, considering his age and character as well as 
the fearful conditions prevailing in Newgate in those days. 
Chained down in a gloomy, dank, and fetid dungeon, sur- 
rounded by filth and vermin, entirely shut oif from the 
outer world, with nothing to break the grave-like silence 
but the gnawing of rats and the curses of vicious criminals, 
the venerable old man must have undergone a thousand 
martyrdoms. Money, it is true, might have procured him 
clean straw for bedding or more nutritious food to relieve 
his hunger and restore his declining strength ; but as a poor 
Franciscan he had not wherewith to secure the good will of 
the jailer. Friends, too, might have come to his rescue, even 
though they would thereby imperil their own safety; but 
the Civil War with all its dangers and hardships for Cath- 
olics was now in full swing, while London was in the hands 
of the parliamentarians. Least of all could Fr. Francis 
Davenport, by whom he had been received into the Order, 
and his fellow friars relieve his misery. The welfare of 
their persecuted flock forbade them to expose themselves to 
the fury of the Puritans. 

Hence, for three or four years, while four of his brethren 
mounted the scaffold and died a martyr 's death for the faith, 
Fr. Christopher had patiently to wait till God should sum- 
mon him to his eternal reward. '^Not for him," Stone 
touchingly remarks, ''was the glory of shedding his blood 
for the Faith, surrounded by a crowd of witnesses ; for him 
were only the lingering torments of abandonment and the 
ignominy of the Cross. "^'^ At last, however, sickness and 
privation had done their work, and his tried soul exchanged 
the gloom of the prison for the glory of God's blissful 

14. Thaddeus, on the authority of Clarendon. See also Hope, p. 218 ; 
and Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 130. 

15. Stone, p. 132. 



250 FRANCISCANS AND 

mansions. In the Franciscan^ Martyrology, he is commemo- 
rated on November 1, in these terms : "In London, Blessed 
Christopher a Sancta Clara, Martyr, who, having been cast 
into a loathsome prison for the confession of the Catholic 
religion and sentenced to death, weakened by squalor and 
hunger, gave up his soul to God in prayer, ' '^® 

Surely, the last moment had no terrors for one who in 
life had so diligently studied how to die. Many a time, no 
doubt, when lying cold and hungry on his bed of straw, he 
recalled to mind the poem he had written years before and 
paused to reflect on the words : 

Consider wisely what thou hast to do 

In this vain world with serious meditation, 

How short the time, what's likely to ensue, 
And frustrate not the end of thy creation. 

Since here is naught whereon thou canst rely 
But to be born, to labor, and to die. 

16. His name does not appear, however, on the official list of December 
4, 1886. See Acta Minorum, Vol. VI (1887), p. 49 seq. Accordingly, the 
title of Venerable is not prefixed to liis name. 



CHAPTER IV 

VENERABLE JOHN BAPTIST BULLAKER, 0. F. M. 

Studies with the Jesuits at Saint-Omer and at Valladolid — 
Desires to become a Franciscan — Enters the Order 
— Novitiate and years of study — Joins the English Prov- 
ince — Departs for England — Arrested and imprisoned 
at Plymouth — In Exeter jail — Before the judges — Con- 
veyed to London for trial — Liberated — Twelve years of 
missionary labors — Betrayed and captured while saying 
Mass — Court proceedings against him — Tried for being 
a priest — Condemned to death — Martyrdom at Tyburn. 

It was in the year 1622 that Thomas Bullaker, the only- 
son of a distinguished Catholic physician in Chichester, 
took leave of home and kindred and boarded a ship that was 
about to set sail for Flanders/ Had the civil authorities 
surmised that the comely youth of some eighteen summers 
was bound for the English College at Saint-Omer to study 
for the priesthood, they would undoubtedly have intercepted 
him and brought action against his parents for violating the 
penal laws then in force. To forestall this, Thomas had dis- 
closed his intention to the Spanish ambassador in London, 
who alleging important business matters obtained for him 
the necessary passport. 

Arriving in Flanders, Thomas at once proceeded to the 
English College at Saint-Omer. The Jesuit Fathers in 
charge of the institution soon detected the excellent qualities 
of the young Englishman, and perhaps also expressed to him 
their hope of one day numbering him among their own. 

1. Mason bases his life sketch of Fr. Bullaker in the Certamen Sera- 
phicum (pp. 35-70) on the writings of the martyr and on other trustworthy 
testimonies. These writings, he tells us (p. 33), were preserved at his 
time in the archives of the English Franciscans at Douai. 

251 



252 



FRANCISCANS AND 




Venerable John Baptist Bullaker, O. F. M. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 253 

That Thomas shortly after his arrival bound himself in some 
way to their Order, seems at least probable. He had been 
with them only three weeks when they sent him for the 
higher studies to Valladolid in Spain. Here he registered 
as an alumnus iuratus of the English College under the as- 
sumed name of Thomas Tailer.^ 

But his mind was agitated with grave doubts regarding 
his vocation. More and more he felt himself drawn to the 
Franciscans. Alone in a strange country, without an ac- 
quaintance among the Franciscans, he w^as at a loss how to 
proceed. Fearing at the same time lest the college authori- 
ties might dissuade him from what he so earnestly desired, 
he kept the matter secret. With greater zeal than prudence, 
he spent long hours of the night in prayer and meditation, 
slept on the bare floor, and subjected his body to the pangs 
of the scourge and cilice. This he continued for some weeks 
when he began to realize that his health was declining. He 
at length took courage and revealed to Father Baker, S. J., 
his confessor, the secret of his heart. How happy he was 
when the zealous priest consoled him and assured him of his 
support. He then made a ten days' retreat, at the end of 
which he was determined to enter the Order of St. Francis. 

Without delay, the Jesuit Fathers made the necessary 
arrangements with the provincial of the Spanish Francis- 
cans. There was a friary about six miles from Valladolid, 
on a site called Abrojo, i.e., Thistle, on account of the wild- 
ness of the surrounding landscape. Here on the feast of 
Corpus Christi, 1622, Thomas received the Franciscan habit 
and the name John Baptist. Here, too, he spent the year 
of novitiate, edifying all by his love of prayer and mortifica- 
tion. After his profession, he finished his course in philoso- 
phy and then studied theology at Valladolid, Avila, and Se- 
govia. Finally, at the age of twenty-four, he was ordained 
priest. Having reached the goal of his youthful aspirations, 
his soul, long since inspired by the example of so many of 
his brethren, went out wholly to the foreign missions. But 

2. stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 133. 



254 FRANCISCANS AND 

'*at this first starting point," as Stone observes, ''he was 
prevented by the virtue of religious obedience from making 
a second mistake as to his vocation."^ Shortly after his 
ordination, a number of friars had again been selected for 
the flourishing missions which the province had in the West 
Indies. Fr. John Baptist asked leave to join them. But 
the provincial put him off, telling him to remember England, 
which was equally in need of missionaries, and which as his 
native country ought to have the first claim on his interest 
and zeal. The young priest willingly submitted and hence- 
forth endeavored to fit himself in every way for a missionary 
career among his neglected countrymen. 

Thus about a year elapsed when the provincial informed 
him that he might follow the summons of the Belgium com- 
missary and join his brethren on the missions in England. 
Fr. John was overjoyed and devoted ten days to prayer and 
meditation. Then having changed his habit for a secular 
dress, which he obtained for charity, he set out for Bor- 
deaux. Traveling alone and on foot though an unknown, 
desolate, and swampy country, the poor friar must have 
suffered greatly from anguish and fatigue. At last, after 
many hardships, he reached the French seaport and secured 
passage on a ship bound for England. From his modest 
bearing, the captain of the ship suspected his priestly char- 
acter, and, on landing at Plymouth, reported his suspicion 
to the mayor of the city, who without further inquiry had 
the friar arrested and cast into prison. Here he languished 
for eight days. The weather was extremely cold, which 
added greatly to his sufferings. Lacking the means to 
lecure sufficient and wholesome nourishment, he would have 
iuccumbed to hunger, had not some fellow prisoners shared 
their meager rations with him. His next place of confine- 
ment was the county jail of Exeter, where thrown among 
criminals of the lowest type he Avas to await the opening of 
the Lenten assizes. 

At last, the circuit judges came to Exeter, and one of 

3. Ibidem, p. 135. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 255 

the first to be summoned for trial was Fr. John. After the 
usual questions as to age and profession, the judge asked 
him whether he was willing to take the oath of allegiance 
according to the meaning it had in England. 

"As far as the allegiance that becomes a faithful subject 
is concerned, ' ' replied the friar, ' ' I will obey the king in all 
that belongs to him. If necessary, I will confirm this by an 
oath and prove it by my conduct should an occasion present 
itself. In the proposed oath, however, there are certain 
clauses regarding the Supreme Pontiff, Christ's Vicar on 
earth, which I do not fully understand. Hence, with your 
leave, I absolutely refuse to take it. ' ' 

The judge objected that there were priests who held the 
oath could be taken. 

''From this you must not conclude, however, that it 
can," was the quick reply. "Whether your assertion is 
based on facts, I do not know. At all events, after due con- 
sideration, I feel convinced that the oath can not be taken. ' ' 

Thereupon, he was asked whom he would obey, the king 
or the Pope, were they to issue contrary and conflicting 
orders. 

"I imagine," the friar explained, "that we must obey 
the commands of him who proceeds along the lines of truth 
and justice." 

Still bent on ensnaring him, the judge cunningly insisted 
that he should state who he thought should decide in that 
matter. But the wary friar detected the trap and refused 
to answer. 

It seems that his quick-witted and straightforward re- 
joinders had won the favor of the judge, who finally gave 
him a gentle hint as to how he might escape the law. 

"Perhaps you will change your mind in the near 
future, ' ' he said ; ' ' you may ask now for leisure to give the 
matter further consideration." 

"What my opinion may be hereafter," put in the pris- 
oner, ' ' I can not at present discover. Nevertheless, I hum- 
bly request that judgment in my case be deferred." 



256 FRANCISCANS AND 

l>eeply resenting the attitude of the judge, the captain of 
the ship now stepped forward and produced a book, which he 
declared to be a missal and as such a positive proof that the 
prisoner on whose person it had been found was a priest. 
Though no one in court was able to read the book, all agreed 
that its content was dangerous to the commonwealth. 
Finally, someone who knew a little Spanish examined it and 
loudly contended that it was merely a volume of Spanish 
plays. Now, of course, peals of laughter rang through the 
court room, much to the discemfiture of the over-zealous 
captain. 

For the present, Fr. John Baptist was brought back to 
prison. A few days later the jailer received orders from the 
Privy Council to send the suspected priest to London, where 
he would be tried within the next twenty days. But this 
was only a ruse to effect his release. Hatred against priests 
was not so violent just then ; and influential friends of the 
friars had succeeded in interesting the higher authorities in 
his behalf. 

On gaining his freedom, he began at once to search for 
his brethren in the great metropolis. He had hardly taken 
up his abode with the friars, when the hardships he had of 
late been subjected to began to tell on him. He was stricken 
with a severe fever, from the effects of which he never fully 
recovered. Nevertheless, as priest and missionary, he sacri- 
ficed himself entirely for the welfare of his flock, gaining 
the esteem of all by his sterling piety and by his untiring 
zeal for souls. In 1638, he was formally incorporated into 
the English province.* In what esteem the brethren held 
him may be seen from the fact that he was made secretary of 
the provincial ; and in 1640, he became titular guardian of 
the newly formed district of Chichester,^ his native city. 

4. Thaddeus, The Franciscans in Englam,d, p. 206. 

5. Mason, p. 49. Thaddeus says (p. 206) that he was appointed 
guardian of Oxford. The two districts, Oxford and Chichester, were estab- 
lished in the same year, 1640. Perhaps Fr. John Baptist was at first 
appointed for both places or was soon- transferred to Oxford, since Chi- 
chester was his native place and he could escape detection more easily 
at Oxford. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 257 

Twelve years had elapsed since his arrival on the English 
mission. All this while, he had hoped and prayed for the 
privilege of dying a martyr's death. But it was a time 
when priests were comparatively safe, so that he gradually 
despaired of the martyr's crown and longed for the life of 
seclusion and prayer he had enjoyed during the first years 
of his religious profession. Accordingly, he asked and ob- 
tained permission to return to the continent. He was on 
the point of leaving England, when the smoldering embers 
of Puritan hatred against Catholics were again fanned into 
a devastating flame by the rebellious Commons. Now, of 
course, he decided to remain; especially when he learned 
how the Tertiary martyr. Venerable William Ward, had 
been captured, tried, and executed for being a priest. Hop- 
ing to share his happy lot, he hastened to London, the hot- 
bed of Puritan intolerance.^ Friends, however, compelled 
him to seek a place of safety. A few weeks later, he heard 
how a number of priests had been seized and thrown into 
prison.^ Again he ventured into the thick of the fray, but 
again he was forced to retire. At last, regardless of friendly 
entreaties, he went a third time to London and sought out 
the provincial, Fr. George Perrot, who gave him permission 
to remain in the city. 

With undaunted zeal, the heroic friar undertook the 
hazardous task of ministering to the persecuted Catholics. 
He visited the loathsome prisons and the gloomy homes of 
the aged, poor, and sick, administering the sacraments as 
best he might, distributing whatever alms he could gather, 
and confirming all in the faith by his noble example of self- 
denial and by the words of cheer that gushed from his God- 
loving soul. He was lodging in one of the most dangerous 
parts of the city, when one day the priest catchers suddenly 
entered the very house where he was staying. 

"Am I the priest whom you are seeking?" he asked, 
fearlessly stepping up to them. 

6. Spillman, Katholilcen^erfolgung in England, Part IV, p. 261. 

7. Mason thinks that among them was Fr. Christopher Colman 
(p. 51), 



258 FRANCISCANS AND 

Baffled by his boldness, they replied in the negative. 
' ' But, besides me there is no other here, ' ' he hastily sub- 
joined, fearing they might depart without making further 
investigation. On the following day, they returned and 
again searched the house. Fr. John Baptist was sitting at 
dinner and had his breviary lying beside him on the table. 
The door to his room stood ajar. On passing, the spies 
looked in, but, strange to say, they took no notice of him. 
At this second defeat of his most ardent desire, the man of 
God was much disturbed. On the one hand, he longed for 
the martyr's crown; on the other hand, he dreaded to cross 
the designs of Providence. Now he redoubled his prayers 
and penances, beseeching ''the Father of mercies and the 
God of all consolation to deign at last to hear him and to 
number him in the ranks of the martyrs. ' ' 

In a letter to a fellow priest, Fr. John Baptist recounts 
the particulars of his arrest and trial.® ' ' In 1642, on Sep- 
tember 11, which fell on a Sunday," he writes, *'it pleased 
the Most High and Almighty to soothe my anguish and to 
console me, his unworthiest servant, with the prospect of 
obtaining what I had so long yearned and prayed for." 
At the time of his seizure he was staying in the house of 
Lady Powel, a very pious and charitable gentlewoman. One 
of her maids, however, was secretly in league with the anti- 
Catholic party, and it was through her greed and treachery 
that Fr. John fell into the hands of the priest catchers.® 
Having finished his breviary and morning meditation on the 
above-mentioned day, the saintly friar vested for holy Mass. 
Little did he think that at that very moment the pursuivants 
were standing in the street below, ready to enter the house 
at a given signal and surprise him at the sacred functions. 
Just as he was intoning the Gloria, Wadsworth^® rushed in 
and dragged him from the altar. 

8. For a copy of this letter see Mason, pp. 53-63. 

9. This we learn from De Marsys, who at the time of the Puritan 
Revolution was in the service of Comte d'Harcourt, the French ambassador 
at the English court. He was present at the trial and execution of Vener- 
able Bullaker. See Hope, Franciscan Martyrs in England, pp. 140 seq. 

10. The same who captured Ven. William Ward. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 259 

**0h, why didst thou not wait till after the consecra- 
tion?'' exclaimed the friar. "The precious body of my 
Saviour would have strengthened me against thy violence, 
under which my weakness may now succumb. ' ' 

Blinded with hatred and rage, the heartless zealot in- 
sisted that his victim accompany him through the streets of 
London, clad in the priestly vestments. Only after being 
warned of the possible danger to himself, did the base in- 
former relent. Thereupon, he confiscated all the vestments, 
books, rosaries, pictures and oilstocks, and ordered the friar 
to follow him to headquarters." 

A half -hour after their arrival, the sheriff entered and 
asked Fr. John whether he was a priest. Glad that his 
hour had come, the man of God assured him that he was. 

''What! Durst thou violate the laws of the kingdom, 
which strictly forbid any person of that profession to set 
foot on English soil ? ' ' 

''Those laws are wicked and opposed to Christian jus- 
tice ; therefore, I cared not a straw for them. If you pursue 
the course you have begun," he added fearlessly, "I dare 
say, before the lapse of many years, you will pass a law 
making it treason to believe in Jesus Christ. ' ' 

Then, to bear out his assertion, he referred with glowing 
indignation to the recent outrage which the intolerant Puri- 
tans had committed against Christ by defacing and pulling 
down the crucifix in Cheapside. This reproach, of course, 
infuriated the sheriff and his attendants. 

*' Where in Holy Writ does Christ command that a 
picture or a statue of himself be made ? ' ' 

"Albeit, in the sacred pages, he does not command it 
expressly, ' ' the friar explained, * ' still, the custom is sanc- 
tioned by the natural law with which the divine by no means 
conflicts. Sound reason and experience, however, tell us 

11. Lady Powel and her twelve-year-old son, who was serving the 
martyr's Mass on the morning of his seizure, were likewise arrested and 
brought before the sheriff. According to De Marsys, the three prisoners 
were subsequently thrown Into different prisons. See Hope, p. 143. 



260 FRANCISCANS AND 

that the insult offered an image touches him whom the image 
represents. ' ' 

Then asking whether they would prosecute for treason 
the man who would outrage the king 's image, he argued that 
more traitorous by far is one who abuses Christ's image, as 
they had done. 

*'What has brought thee to England?" demanded the 
sheriff, eager to change the subject. 

**To lead back my countrymen to the fold of Christ, 
whence they have strayed ; this was the purpose of my send- 
ing and of my coming ? ' ' 

* 'By whom hast thou been sent ? By the Pope ? ' ' 

**By those whom the Sovereign Pontiff has vested with 
due authority and power. ' ' 

Satisfied that the prisoner was a priest, the sheriff gave 
the pursuivants the necessary instructions and departed. 
What followed we will let Fr. John relate. 

''What now troubled them above all," he writes, "was 
how to lead me off without danger of death through the dense 
throng that had gathered at the door and was waiting for 
me. For this reason, the pursuivants decided to ask for an 
escort, so that I might safely accompany them to prison. 
Accordingly, to avoid the fury of the mob, I was taken 
through a rear door that led into another street. On the 
way to the prison known as Newgate, we passed by the house 
of the constable, who together with my captors gave me com- 
pany. Now this house happened to be a tavern, and thither 
they brought me, that I might get something to drink. 
While were were here, Wadsworth, the head of the pur- 
suivants, asked me all kinds of questions regarding my name 
and birthplace. On all these points, I openly confessed the 
truth, because I had made up my mind to conceal nothing. 
He further asked me with which gentlemen of the county of 
Sussex I was acquainted. I told him that years ago I had 
known two, who at one time were schoolmates of mine, but 
now belonged to the parliamentarians ; that one of them was 
Mr. William Morley, and the other Mr. William Cauley, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 261 

both of whom had been decorated with the order of knight- 
hood. Then he asked me where I had studied. For some 
time, I answered, with the Fathers of the Society of Jesus 
at Valladolid in Spain; then, through the kindness of the 
said Fathers, I went to the friary at Abrojo, where I re- 
ceived the habit of the Seraphic Father Saint Francis, 
passed my novitiate, and made my profession. These things 
I told him quite freely, all of which he faithfully reported to 
parliament. ' ' 

The next day, Fr. John Baptist was informed that parlia- 
mentary proceedings against him would begin on Tuesday, 
and that his two former schoolmates would preside as com- 
missioners of parliament. Accordingly, on the following 
morning at seven o 'clock, he was led from Newgate to West- 
minster. On a table in the courtroom, Wadsworth had 
spread out the sacred vestments and other articles he had 
seized in the house of Lady Powel. After examining them, 
one of the bystanders remarked that they were of rather 
ordinary grade. 

' ' By my troth, much too precious for those who now pos- 
sess them, ' ' returned the friar ; * * I 'd have you know, how- 
ever," he continued good-humoredly, ''that I could have 
procured more costly things, had I not apprehended what 
has already come to pass. ' ' 

''Despite the inferior quality of those vestments," 
sneered tlie presiding judge, "idolatry can be practiced as 
well in them as in more precious ones. ' ' 

' ' Prithee, what sort of idolatry art thou referring to ? " 

" Is it not, indeed, criminal idolatry to worship bread as 
God?" 

"We do not worship bread and wine in the august sac- 
rifice of Mass. Under the appearances of bread and wine, 
we rightly adore and pay homage to Christ our Lord. Such, 
from the days of the Apostles down to the time of Martin 
Luther, has ever been the unanimous teaching and practice 
of the entire Church." 

Just then, while rummaging the articles on the table, 



262 FRANCISCANS AND 

someone accidentally discovered the altar stone. After 
closely examining the inscribed crosses, he shouted tri- 
umphantly that he had found the number of the beast." 
All eyes were turned on the speaker, while the friar could 
hardly refrain from laughing at the man 's stupidity. 

''Since there is such intimacy between thee and the 
beast, ' ' he quizzed, ' ' have the goodness to tell me openly and 
plainly the beast 's name. ' ' 

The judge was evidently vexed at the prisoner 's playful 
and fearless manner. 

"On what grounds," he demanded sternly, ''hast thou 
ventured to violate the laws of the country ? ' ^ 

' ' No other answer suggests itself to me just now than the 
one St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and St. John the 
Evangelist offered on a similar occasion. When they were 
called upon to account for having preached the name of 
Jesus contrary to the command of the Jews, they replied: 
'Decide for yourselves, whether it is right in the sight of 
God to hear you rather than God. ' ' ' 

"Mr. BuUaker," Cauley interposed, "knowest thou not 
that it is written : ' Fear God and honor the king ?' " 

"In faith, I do know it; but I know, too," the martyr 
added, "that the same parliament which declared the priest- 
hood treason, also established by law the episcopate, liturgy, 
and ecclesiastical offices and ceremonies, all of which you in 
the present parliament are undoing. " 

"What was wrongly ordered we are warranted to ad- 
just." 

"I certainly see you have tried and schemed to do so. 
But take my word for it, the very next parliament after this 
will reject and remodel the religion you are now striving to 
frame and establish. ' ' 

' ' That day thou wilt never live to see. ' ' 

** Fully do I realize that the time of my dissolution is 



12. He refers to Apoc. 13 :18, where the Evangelist portrays the anti- 
christ. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 263 

at hand; yet, what I have just foretold will come to 
pass. "13 

*'A traitor! a traitor! Who are to be blamed for the 
present disturbances in England but thou and others like 
thee?" 

** Would to God there were in this kingdom no other sort 
of traitors who will put it in more real and serious dangers. 
Of a truth, it matters little how many treasonable practices 
base calumny has laid to the charge of Catholics ; I defy you 
to point out to me one case that has been proved against 
them." 

Not daring to accept the challenge, they quickly re- 
treated to safer ground. 

''How old art thou," asked the judge, "and when didst 
thou receive holy orders ? ' ' 

* ' There are a number of orders, ' ' the friar observed, ' ' of 
which four are termed minor; then follow sub-deaconship, 
deaconship, and priesthood. ' ' 

' ' We are speaking and inquiring about the last. ' ' 

* ' That gentleman there, Mr. Cauley , knows my age better 
perhaps than I do." 

' ' Thou are thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old. ' ' 

** Deduct twenty-four, and the remainder will tell you 
how many years I 've been a priest. ' ' 

' ' How long hast thou been in England ? ' ' 

** About twelve years." 

* * How many Franciscans are there in England. ' ' 

"Think you I'm going to turn traitor to my brethren? 
Take it for granted, herein you shall never succeed. If I 
answer freely to what concerns my own life, it is because I 
would have you know that I do not esteem my life more than 
myself. But in all that might injure others or imperil my 
brethren, I shall try to be extremely cautious. ' ' 

"My lords," broke in Wadsworth, "this man is so obsti- 
nate and so resolute in what pertains to his duty and office, 

13. What he foretold came to pass in 1660, when the Puritan reign of 
terror ceased, and Charles II mounted the throne. 



264 FRANCISCANS AND 

that if you were to send him into exile by one port, he would 
not hesitate to come back by another. ' ' 

''You are quite correct in your conjecture," replied the 
martyr with a smile. 

After putting a few more questions, the court officials 
sent a written account of the proceedings to the chief justice 
and remanded the martyr to Newgate, to await his final trial 
and sentence. 

When the general sessions opened, Fr. John Baptist was 
summoned before the judges. On entering the court, he 
blessed himself with the sign of the cross, saying in a loud 
voice : By the sign of the cross deliver us from our enemies, 
God! Then the clerk ordered him to raise his hand, and 
having read the indictment, he asked : 

''Guilty or not guilty?" 

* ' If by guilty you mean a person that is harmful or crimi- 
nal, I positively deny that I am guilty. I do not deny, how- 
ever, that I am a priest. ' ' 

' ' Sayest thou then thou are not guilty ? ' ' 

"If the force and meaning of the term not guilty desig- 
nates one wholly innocent of a crime, then I swear that I am 
not guilty. But, never shall I plead 7iot guilty if you take 
it as a denial of my having been ordained priest ; for I admit 
without reserve that I am a priest." 

' ' Thou art a traitor ! a traitor ! ' ' 

' ' If besides such as I am, the kingdom harbored no other 
traitors, traitors who in very deed are enemies and subvert- 
ers of their country, it would be now in a far better and 
happier condition than it is. ' ' 

This bold rebuke struck home. For a moment there was 
deathlike silence, until someone broke the spell by calling 
him a seducer. At this, the martyr's countenance beamed 
with joy. 

"Thou makest me exceedingly happy by bestowing upon 
me the same title that the Jews bestowed upon Christ. In 
sooth, thus was our Saviour once reproached by the Jews. 
There have always been priests in England. Saint Austin, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 265 

the Apostle of England, was a priest ; hither he was sent by 
the Sovereign Pontiff, Saint Gregory the Great. I too, am 
a priest, just as Saint Austin was. ' ' 

' ' Thou hsfst come to this place not to preach, nor to insult 
and disgrace our laws, but to answer whether thou art guilty 
or not. ' ' 

* ' I have never made myself guilty of a crime against my 
country or of a capital offence, and I shall never admit it. 
I do not deny, however, that I am a priest and that I was 
arrested while saying Mass. If you are trying to make me 
plead not guilty and thus gainsay my priesthood, you will 
never succeed ; because I will never comply, even should I 
suffer a thousand deaths. At no time, will my conscience 
permit me to stoop so low as to admit that the priesthood is 
a crime. Of a truth, far from being a crime, it ought, I 
think, be held by all in high reverence and esteem. ' ' 

''What, thou, miserable wretch, hast never sinned?" 

*'By your leave, this honorable assembly strains and mis- 
applies the meaning of my words. Readily do I own that I 
am the greatest sinner on earth. What I maintained was 
that my being a priest or saying Mass does not make me 
guilty of a sin or crime. This is the sense in which my words 
were to be taken. ' ' 

*'Mr. Bullaker," ventured the registrar, ''hast thou not 
time and again declared and confessed that thou art a priest ? 
Now tell us, art thou guilty or not ? ' ' 

' ' I consider myself innocent of a capital crime ; that I 
am a priest, I readily grant. ' ' 

"Art thou not aware that thou hast infringed the law 
and that according to the tenor of the law, thou art accused 
of treason ? ' ' 

' ' The law that opposes and conflicts with the law of God, 
should be made light of, I imagine, seeing that I am 
annointed a priest of Christ, according to what the Royal 
Prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit, foretold regarding 
priests, to wit : Thou art a priest forever according to the 
order of Melchisedech, But, forsooth, as you have set down 



266 FRANCISCANS AND 

the priesthood of Christ as treason, so logically you are apt 
to make the same provision regarding the faith in Christ 
Jesus himself. ' ' 

' ' But such happens to be the law ; and to violate the law 
is a sin against God, the author of all law. ' ' 

"A very sound argument, indeed: it is the law, and to 
violate the law is a sin. Consequently, the Turks did right 
in passing a law that prohibits under pain of death the 
preaching of Christ or the promulgation of Christianity 
among them. Now, may I not from the form of your argu- 
ment infer thus : therefore, whoever preaches the name of 
Christ among them is a traitor, inasmuch as he acts contrary 
to the law. ' ' 

' ' If such were contrary to the law, it were indeed wrong 
to attempt it." 

''Thou art a good partisan of Mohammed, my lord 
mayor, and a staunch defender of the Koran.^* But, if such 
be the case, then we must conclude that the Apostles by 
preaching Christ contrary to the laws and edicts of the 
princes and emperors not only acted illegally, but actually 
committed sin, an assumption that offends pious ears. ' ' 

' ' Thy reasoning is unsound ; a distinction must be made 
between the Christian religion and the Catholic or papistical, 
between promulgating the former and promulgating the 
latter." 

"As Saint Austin, the Apostle of our nation, came hither 
to convert the people, witk the same intention and for the 
same purpose have I come hither, to convert the country to 
the true faith and to unite it to the Catholic Church. ' ' 

*'Ah, then perhaps thou art Saint Austin?" 

" I am a priest of the same priestly order as Saint Austin, 
and for the conversion of the country have I been sent 
hither by the same Apostolic See which supported and em- 
powered him." 

Not knowing what to reply, they laughed and again asked 

14. For obvious reasons, the martyr does not recount this apt and 
witty retort in his letter.' Hope (p. 149) seems to have found it in the 
manuscript of De Marsys, who witnessed the trial, 



THE PKOTESTANT REVOLUTION 267 

him whether he was guilty or not. The undaunted friar dis- 
tinguished as before between the guilt of treason and the 
guilt of being a priest, denying the first but admitting the 
latter, if guilt it could be called. Then stepping forward 
with an air of bold defiance, he exclaimed : 

*' Whether the priesthood is a capital crime, Mr. registrar 
and thou, my lord mayor, I place before the tribunal of God, 
whose countenance beholds justice, and who will one day be 
our judge.*' 

' ' We hope to do nothing that we can not render an ac- 
count of," was the rejoinder. 

"Never will I admit the priesthood to be a crime," re- 
peated the martyr. ''If it were such, then to be a priest 
were the same as being a traitor, and consequently every 
priest, inasmuch as he is a priest, is guilty of treason and 
must be put down as an enemy and betraj^er of his country. ' ' 

' ' And such, forsooth, he is ; for to be a priest is contrary 
to the law." 

"The parliament," he contended, "that enacted such a 
law against priests is far from being infallible, since it denies 
this prerogative to the universal Church of Christ, the pillar 
and ground of truth. "^^ 

Finally, realizing that they would never succeed in mak- 
ing their victim admit himself guilty of treason, they re- 
moved him from the bar and had him taken back to prison. 

In the afternoon of the same day, Fr. John was again 
summoned to court. When told by the judge to acknowl- 
edge himself guilty of treason, he replied : 

' ' This morning I proved my innocence ; it is for thee now 
to acknowledge thyself guilty on account of the iniquitous 
sentence thou art about to pass. One day thou wilt have to 

15. Here the martyr's account breaks off. — Lady Powel, we learn from 
De Marsys, freely admitted that she was a Catholic, and that she had 
harbored priests in her house. Eager to gain the crown of martyrdom, 
she steadfastly refused to renounce her faith. Hence, she was imprisoned 
and finally condemned to death. But, on the day set for her execution, 
when she was about to lie down on the hurdle, a messenger arrived from 
parliament with orders that she be taken back to prison and kept there 
till further notice. Shortly after, she was pardoned. See Stone, pp. 150 
seq. ; Hope, p. 150. 



268 FRANCISCANS AND 

give an account before the Judge of judges. Then every 
drop of blood thou art about to shed will rise up against 
thee, and death, far from being for thee, as it will be for thy 
victim, a passage to glory, will be an entrance to darkness 
and punishment that will last for all eternity. ' ' 

''The punishment," laughed the impious judge, 
''matches its duration. But that's a long way off. Mean- 
while I will pass upon thee a sentence which will send thee 
to pave the place with which thou dost threaten me. ' ' 

"I hope in the mercy of God," declared the friar, 
"and I pray Him to grant a better lot even to my per- 
secutors. ' '^^ 

Now the judge turned to the twelve jurymen and said : 

"The prisoner is convicted of treason by his own con- 
fession. More evidence you need not. As to the rest, re- 
member well your oath and duty to return a just verdict, 
having God in your mind. ' ' 

After a brief deliberation, the jury unanimously de- 
clared that they were for referring the case to parliament, 
since the prisoner had sufficiently established his innocence. 
This angered the judge. Urging the friar's admission that 
he was a priest, he ignored the jury 's verdict and sentenced 
the prisoner to death. 

"According to the law," he said, "thou shalt return 
whence thou earnest; thereupon, thou shalt be drawn on a 
hurdle to the place of execution, namely, to Tyburn, and 
put to death : thou shalt be hanged, cut down alive, disem- 
bowelled, and quartered." 

At this, the friar fell on his knees, raised his eyes to 
heaven and intoned the Te Deum. Then rising, he thanked 
the assembly and accompanied the guards back to Newgate. 

Although the day for his execution had not been fixed, 
Fr. John realized that the long desired martyr's crown 
would soon be his. We can imagine how zealously he used 
his last days in prison to prepare himself for the final strug- 
gle. The time not spent in prayer and meditation he de- 

16. See Hope, p. 150. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 269 

voted to works of charity. The Capuchin friars, who had 
a convent near the royal palace, came to ask his prayers; 
they were living in great fear and anxiety, for the hatred 
of the Puritans had of late become more insolent and aggres- 
sive. Catholics from all parts of the city risked their own 
safety and visited him to ask his counsel and to obtain his 
priestly blessing. It was apparently during one of these 
visits that he was informed of the day appointed for his 
martyrdom. 

''I thank thee heartily, my friend," he rejoined, smiling 
gently, ''for these long desired and most happy tidings. 
Believe me, were it not for my utter lack of money, I should 
not let thee depart unrewarded ; but thou shalt not be with- 
out compensation. ' ' 

Great was the joy of his heart, when on Wednesday 
morning, October 16, the officers came and led him from 
prison. On passing out, he met Fr. Francis Bel, one of his 
confreres.^^ 

' ' Brother, ' ' said the latter playfully, * ' I made profession 
before thee. Why takest thou precedence of me ? " 

' * Such is the will of God, ' ' the martyr replied sweetly ; 
"but thou wilt follow soon after me. ' ' 

Since the day of his condemnation, it was observed, the 
sun had not shone over London. That morning, however, 
as if rejoicing over the friar's triumph, it burst forth in full 
splendor. With brutal violence, the officers thrust him 
upon the hurdle and tied him to it, with his face upward. 
The trip to Tyburn over the rough stony streets was attended 
by the usual sufferings and indignities. At last they came 
to the place of execution. Fr. John was unbound from the 
hurdle and brought to the scaffold. Far from trembling 
with fear at sight of the dreadful instruments of torture 
lying by, the martyr turned his eyes to heaven, knelt down, 
and prayed aloud. But he was soon interrupted by the 
sheriff, who asked him whether he had anything to say. 

"Only this," came the calm reply, "I am greatly in- 

17. Mason, p. 178. 



270 FRANCISCANS AND 

debted to you and to my country for the very singular and 
unexpected favor I have received. ' ' 

"What favor is it that so affects thee?" 

' ' A favor of which I deem myself most unworthy, a favor 
for which I always yearned, but never dared to hope : to wit, 
to die in defence of the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman faith. 
Yet, despite my unworthiness, the goodness of God has privi- 
leged me to prove my loyalty by the shedding of my blood. ' * 

Then, having mounted the ladder in compliance with the 
sheriff's orders, he turned to the assembled multitude and 
discoursed to them on the words of the Psalmist : Thou art a 
priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech. Fear- 
ing that he might mention the Real Presence in the Blessed 
Sacrament, one of the Protestant ministers interrupted him 
saying he was doing wrong in seducing the people with his 
false and pernicious doctrine. To this the martyr replied 
with sweet composure : 

' ' Sir, patiently grant me leave to speak for the space of 
one brief hour. Thou art, indeed, a minister of the king of 
the English (Anglorum) , but I am, though most unworthily, 
a minister of the King of Angels {Ayigelorum). Never had 
I a more sacred and exalted pulpit than the one I now 
occupy. Thou leavest no stone unturned to undo and per- 
vert a simple and untutored people, blinded in dark ignor- 
ance. Let me then, I pray, owe thee this little favor, that 
at least from the scaffold I may extend a helping hand to 
them, and that my tongue may be unto them a plank by 
means of which they can escape shipwreck and destruction. ' ' 

He had not yet finished his discourse, when the sheriff, 
who was listening with impatience and disgust, suddenly 
gave orders that the sentence of the court be carried out. 
While the executioners were making the final preparations, 
Fr. John raised his hands, as a sign to one of his brethren^® 
in the throng, that he was prepared to receive absolution. 
Then, commending himself to the mercy of God, he was 
rudely thrust from the ladder, cut down while still alive, and 

18. Very likely, It was Ven. Francis Bel. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 271 

subjected to the usual barbarities. Seizing his heart, the 
brutal executioner held it up to the frenzied multitude. ' ' Be- 
hold the heart of a traitor ! " he exclaimed and threw it into 
the fire. Having beheaded and quartered the body, they 
exposed the parts to public view, the head on London Bridge 
and the quarters on four gates of the city.^^ "But," con- 
cludes Mason, ' ' the fetters, as it were, being broken, his most 
holy soul, freed from its narrow prison and escorted by a 
host of angels, winged its flight to heaven, where decorated 
with the victor's palm in token of his triumph, it exults in 
enduring peace, in undisturbed rest, and in the splendor of 
never-ending glory. ' '^^ 

19. We are told that the afore-mentioned Franciscan rescued the 
martyr's heart from the flames. Other relics were either snatched from 
the fire or bought from the executioner by the servants of Count Egmont, 
who was present and later drew up a formal statement establishing the 
authenticity of the relics. The Franciscan nuns of the Convent of Our 
Lady of Dolors at Taunton have a forearm of the martyr, a corporal which 
was dipped in his blood, and another which he used at Mass on the morn- 
ing of his arrest. See Hope, pp. 154 seq. 

20. His name appears on the list of December 4, 1887. He is like- 
wise reckoned among the companions of Venerable Francis (Arthur) Bel, 
whose cause of beatification was again taken up in 1900. See Ortolanl, 
De Causis Beatorum et Servorum Dei Ordinis Minorum, p. 14. 



CHAPTER V 

VENERABLE PAUL HEATH, 0. P. M. 

Of Protestant parentage — Student at Cambridge — Religious 
doubts — Conversion — Enters the Franciscan Order at 
Douai — Novitiate and years of study — Esteemed by the 
brethren — The scholar — The priest — The religious — 
Eager to join the English missionaries — Permission 
finally granted — Arrives in London — In Compter prison 
Before the mayor and the commissioners of parliament — - 
In. Newgate — Before the judges — Sentenced to death — 
Martyred at Tyburn. 

About six weeks had elapsed since the martyrdom of 
Venerable John Baptist Bulaker, when a fellow friar of his, 
no less distinguished for sanctity than for learning, set out 
for the English missions, in the hope of gaining the martyr's 
crown. The story of his conversion from Protestantism, of 
his career in the Franciscan Order, and of his martyrdom 
for the faith, forms perhaps the fairest episode in the his- 
tory of the Second English Province. 

Venerable Paul Heath, the son of a Protestant family in 
Peterborough, Northamptonshire, received at his christen- 
ing, on December 16, 1599, the name Henry. He was an 
unusually gifted child, and from early boyhood manifested 
an insatiable fondness for books. To give him the advan- 
tages of a liberal education, his parents sent him at the age 
of eighteen to the university of Cambridge. He matricu- 
lated at Corpus Christi College, where on account of his 
engaging manners and extraordinary diligence he soon won 
the esteem of his professors and associates. From one of his 
fellow students, who later became a Catholic and a Jesuit, 
we learn how earnestly Henry Heath devoted himself to his 

272 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 273 



Venerable Paul Heath, O. F. M. 



274 FRANCISCANS AND 

studies, how eagerly he sought the company of such as cared 
more for books than for pleasure, and how, even as a 
Protestant, he showed a decided aptitude and inclination for 
the life he was one day to embrace. Serious doubts regard- 
ing the faith in which he had been reared began to trouble 
his mind ; and the farther he advanced in his studies, the 
graver became his religious misgivings. Not less prudent 
than sincere, however, he kept the matter a close secret from 
all except a few intimate friends, who presently joined him 
in his search for the truth. Thus four years elapsed, when 
the authorities conferred on him the degree of bachelor of 
arts and placed him in charge of the college library. This 
appointment gave him an opportunity to delve into the rich 
mine of Catholic literature, largely the spoils of the con- 
fiscated monasteries. 

At this time, no religious controversialist was more 
extolled in the Protestant circles at Cambridge than William 
Whitaker, a former master of the university. With absorb- 
ing interest, young Heath read and studied the canon's 
attack on Cardinal Bellarmine, who had openly questioned 
the literary honesty of the Protestant divine. Consulting 
the original sources to which the disputants referred, Henry 
noticed how accurately the learned Cardinal quoted his 
authorities, and how his less scrupulous adversary misquoted 
and misconstrued passages in order to buttress his theses. 
This roused the young man's suspicion and indignation. 
Night and day, he busied himself with the teaching of the 
Catholic Church and soon perceived how utterly untenable 
Protestantism was on logical and historical grounds. Mean- 
while, the grace of God enlightened and strengthened him, 
so that after the lapse of about a year Henry was determined 
to embrace the old faith. It was probably through the 
imprudence or malice of a fellow student that the affair at 
last came to the notice of the university heads. Knowing 
what an influence he exerted over his associates, the authori- 
ties threatened him with imprisonment and expulsion. This 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 275 

only served to confirm the young man in his convictions. 
He secretly left Cambridge and proceeded to London.^ 

Here, in the hotbed of Puritanism, Henry's constancy 
was put to a severe test.^ He sought to interest the Spanish 
ambassador in his behalf ; but in vain. Still more disheart- 
ening was his experience with Mr. George Jerningham, a 
well-known Catholic nobleman, who took him for a spy and 
sent him packing with bitter reproach.^ Altogether at a 
loss how to prove his sincerity, Henry began to seek the aid 
of the Blessed Virgin, promising eventually to dedicate him- 
self entirely to her service. The next time he met Mr. Jern- 
ingham, the nobleman's attitude was wholly changed. 
Through him he became acquainted with Rev. George Mus- 
cot, who after due preparation received him into the Church. 
Thereupon, provided with a letter of recommendation from 
the Spanish ambassador, he departed for the English Col- 
lege at Douai. 

Henry Heath had been at the college but a short time, 
when two Franciscans from the neighboring friary came 
there. Their modest and mortified demeanor caught the 
fancy of the young convert, and he conceived an ardent 
desire to join their ranks. But his father confessor, whose 
advice he had sought, dissuaded him on the grounds that 
such a life would prove too difficult for him who had only 

1. Mason, Certamen Seraphicum, pp. 73-146. The author drew the 
above facts regarding the university career of Fr. Heath from a letter 
which F. John Spencer, S. J., wrote on May 23, 1643, about a month after 
the martyr's death, declaring that he was an eye-witness of what he re- 
counts. See Mason, p. 74. — Four of the martyr's friends likewise converted 
to the Catholic faith and- embraced the religious state, one, apparently the 
above-mentioned F. Spencer, joining the Jesuit Order, and three becoming 
Franciscans. The names of the latter are not known. See Hope, Fran- 
ciscan Martyrs in England, p. 157 ; Gaudentius, Bedeutung und Verdienste 
des Franziskanerordens im Kampfe gegen den Protestantistnus, p. 176 ; 
stone. Faithful Unto Death, p. 156. 

2. The subsequent facts concerning Fr. Paul's conversion and later 
career are vouched for by Mason, who for at least ten years shared the 
same roof with the martyr and hence had ample opportunity to. observe 
his private and public life. 

3. In extenuation of the ambassador's and the nobleman's behavior, 
we must bear in mind that at the time government spies infested the 
country. With devilish cunning they frequently ingratiated themselves 
Into Catholic households, in order to ferret out the names and hiding places 
of priests and of such as harbored them. An instance of this kind is related 
by Stone (p. 157), where a certain Beard repaid the hospitality of unwary 
Catholics by denouncing them to the authorities. 



276 FRANCISCANS AND 

recently embraced the true faith. But Henry had no peace. 
Again he began to pray to the Blessed Virgin, and again he 
experienced her aid. It was probably in May, 1624, that the 
superior of St. Bonaventure 's, Fr. Jerome Pickford,* in- 
vested him with the habit of St. Francis and gave him the 
name Paul of St. Magdalene. 

''I am scarcely able to relate," writes Mason, *%hat a 
saintly and angelic life he led in the seraphic lyceum. In- 
deed, the virtues that others acquire only in part and by 
degree, were united in him and sprang up all at once ; both 
in the beginning of his conversion and in the novitiate, no 
one was more austere than he in self-abnegation and self- 
discipline, no one more conspicuous for contempt of the 
world, no one more assiduous in prayer, more perfect in 
renouncing his own will, more fervent in the love of God 
and of heavenly things." Having completed the year of 
probation, Fr. Paul was admitted to profession by Fr. 
George Perrot who was governing the friary in the absence 
of the superior.^ The next three years, he studied theol- 
ogy under the direction of Fr. Francis Davenport, where- 
upon, in 1628, he was ordained priest. 

The important offices which were subsequently en- 
trusted to him show how highly the superiors esteemed the 
young priest 's virtue and learning. The first chapter of the 
English pro\dnce, held in 1630, appointed him vicar of 
Douai, professor of moral theology, and spiritual director 
of the student clerics. Two years later, he succeeded Fr. 
Francis BeP as guardian of the friary. In the same year, 
after the death of Fr. William of St. Augustine, he was 
appointed head professor of dogmatic theology. The 
provincial chapter of 1637 again elected him guardian, at 

4. Fr. Bonaventure Jackson had, indeed, been appointed guardian of 
Douai in 1624 ; but we know, too, that he was called the same year to the 
mission in England. 

5. He was "governing the friary," says Mason (p. 80), "in the absence 
of the preses" (namely, Fr. Francis Davenport), who had been sent to 
Rome to plead the cause of the newly-founded English custody at the 
general chapter held on Pentecost, 1625. 

6. Fr. Bel had been commissioned by the general chapter to restore 
the Franciscan province in Scotland. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 277 

the same time entrusting him with the responsible offices of 
custos and provincial commissary. All these offices, we are 
told, Pr. Paul discharged with great fidelity, although he 
deemed himself unfit and unworthy to be placed over others. 
The Flemish Franciscan, Fr. Peter Marchant, who presided 
at the chapter of 1637 and who was intimately acquainted 
with the members of the English province, informs us that 
Fr. Paul was ' ' a mirror of meekness, integrity, and sincerity, 
a beacon light of holiness, a model of religious observance 
among the brethren, and in the science of theology a shin- 
ing and glowing star among the luminaries of the Douai 
University. ' ' 

Even before his ordination, Fr. Paul evinced a remark- 
able aptitude for the sacred sciences. With a penetrating 
intellect, retentive memory, and acute judgment he com- 
bined untiring zeal and energy. One day, Dr. Poletius, then 
regius professor at the local university, attended a public 
disputation which the clerics had prepared at the friary. 
The manner in which Fr. Paul defended his thesis won un- 
stinted applause from the learned divine. "I will say can- 
didly," he remarked later, ''that never in my life did I 
hear a theologian defend his thesis in a more learned and 
skillful manner." 

No wonder that after his ordination Fr. Paul was per- 
mitted to devote himself principally to teaching and writ- 
ing. In order to deepen his knowledge of theology and bet- 
ter to qualify himself for the sacred duties imposed upon 
him, he carefully studied the writings of Holy Scripture 
and of the Holy Fathers, the decisions of the Councils, and 
the history of the Church written by Baronius. In specu- 
lative theology, he was an ardent and efficient expounder of 
Bl. John Duns Scotus, the founder of the Franciscan school. 
His lucid exposition and sound vindication of the Scotistic 
doctrine was the frequent topic of comment not only among 
his brethren but also among the professors and students of 
the neighboring university. His writings, of which Mason 
adduces thirty titles, embrace every branch of higher learn- 



278 FRANCISCANS AND 

ing, philosophy, dogmatic and moral theology, canon law, 
ascetics, and history. A number of them are of a contro- 
versial character, directed against the English Protestants 
of his day. How valuable his services were to the province, 
we may judge from the fact that his superiors found it ex- 
pedient to refuse him permission to leave for the English 
missions, because, as they averred, the welfare of the prov- 
ince demanded his services as teacher of the clerics. 

Despite the manifold cares as superior and professor, 
Fr. Paul found ample time to discharge the various func- 
tions of his religious and priestly calling. In 1635, when the 
Franciscan Sisters settled at Nieuport, he became their ex- 
traordinary confessor. At the same time, he heard confes- 
sions at the convent of the Poor Clares at Aire. Like a true 
son of St. Francis, he cherished a singular love for the sick 
and needy. "When he heard of families in distress, he would 
visit them and even beg alms with which to relieve their 
wants. In him the lowly and unlettered found a trusty 
friend, ever ready to instruct and advise them in the way 
of salvation. Sinners and heretics seemed to be the special 
objects of his priestly zeal. No way was too far, no weather 
too inclement, no other concern too pressing, no sacrifice 
too great, where the salvation of an erring soul was at stake. 
For their conversion he offered up his prayers and fasts 
and in the end won them over to Christ not so much by 
learned discussion as by the engaging humility and modesty 
of his demeanor. His success in this respect must have 
been extraordinary. Mason remarks that he could recount 
many instances of conversions wrought through the labors 
and prayers of Fr. Paul, but that he refrained from doing 
so, because the persons concerned were still among the 
living. 

A fair glimpse into the inner life of this holy man is 
afforded us by his Soliloqies or Documents of Christian Per- 
fection,'' an ascetical treatise similar to the Imitation of 

7. A third edition of these Soliloquies, together with a brief life sketch 
of Fr. Heath, was published in 1892 by the Franciscans of St. Bonaventure's 
College, Quaracchi, Italy. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 279 

Christ of Thomas a Kempis. His so-called ''Daily Exer- 
cise,"® a sort of rule of life to which he obliged himself, 
shows how earnestly the saintly friar endeavored to guard 
against worldly principles and allurements and to make con- 
stant progress in holiness. Among these exercises or reso- 
lutions, a number are significant : daily to make a hundred 
aspirations of love to Jesus ; constantly to mortify the eyes, 
the tongue, the passions, and the affections ; to bear patiently 
with the shortcomings of others ; to be fully resigned in time 
of discomfort and want ; to seek only God and his service ; 
to disregard the love and esteem of men; to refrain from 
all needless and protracted conversation with others ; to per- 
form all things in the spirit of obedience ; in particular, to 
observe the following rules: (1) to renounce all right and 
authority over everything whatsoever, even over my good 
name and personal convenience, and willingly to suffer my- 
self to be despoiled of all things for God's sake ; (2) to offer 
myself as a servant to every creature and to do all possible 
good, expecting in return only crosses and afflictions; (3) to 
live as entirely dead to the defects of others, in order that 
I may continually lament my own defects. 

Prayer and mortification constitute the fountain whence 
the saints of God draw light and strength for their exterior 
activity. Like the Seraph of Assisi, Fr. Paul was a great 
lover of prayer. Though the provincial constitutions ex- 
empted him from choir duty, he deemed it a privilege and 
an obligation to chant the divine office in common with the 
brethren. Many a time, after the others had finished the 
midnight chant and meditation and had retired to their 
rooms for a brief rest, he would pass the remainder of the 
night in prayer and contemplation before the Blessed Sacra- 
ment. Especially dear to him was the Franciscan custom 
of praying with arms extended in the form of a cross. To 
encourage his brethren in the practice of this form of 
prayer, he used to tell them what singular favors he had 

8. Contained in the Vita Auctoris prefacing the third edition of the 
Boliloquies. 



280 FRANCISCANS AND 

obtained through it from God. Mason says that he often 
heard the saintly friar relate the following incident. A 
contagious disease had broken out in the community. Sev- 
eral friars had already died of it, and a number were dan- 
gerously ill. When Fr. Paul, who apparently was guardian 
at the time, felt the sickness coming on him, he went to the 
church and with his arms extended spent half an hour in 
prayer. Finally, overcome by fatigue, he dropped his arms 
and rose to his feet, only to find that the symptoms of the 
disease had entirely left him. 

No less remarkable was his devotion to the Mother of 
God. To her intercession he ascribed his conversion to the 
true faith. He carefully carried out the promise he had 
made of entirely dedicating himself to her service. As a 
constant reminder of this pledge, he wore a little chain on 
his arm, which he never removed. Like Bl. John Duns 
Scotus, he was an ardent champion of her Immaculate Con- 
ception, defending and extolling this prerogative of Mary 
whenever an opportunity offered itself. In all difficulties, 
trials and temptations, he had recourse to Mary, his Mother, 
and constantly exhorted others to do likewise. It was to her 
that he took refuge when everybody and everything seemed 
to stand in the way of his joining the missionary friars in 
England. Shortly before his departure for England, he 
wrote a beautiful letter, or rather prayer, to his heavenly 
Queen.^ In this letter, he again pledges her undying love 
and fidelity and thanks her for all the benefits he has till 
then received through her, recounting above all how she has 
helped him find the true faith and how she has obtained 
the same grace for his father, who at the time was a man 
of eighty years and was living as lay brother in the com- 
munity at Douai. 

On the subject of Fr. Paul's spirit of mortification, his 
biographer becomes quite eloquent. "Why," he asks, 
"should I mention those bodily penances, abstinences, and 
fasts which the Rule and the Statutes of the Order pre- 

9. For a copy of this letter see Mason, pp. 103 "i on. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 281 

scribed and which Fr. Paul observed so scrupulously that 
he looked on the least remissness in this regard as a seri- 
ous matter ? " To these austerities he was wont to add many 
more of his own choice. His bed was not the customary 
strawsack, but the floor, where without removing his habit 
he took a few hours of sleep. For years he was accustomed 
to fast on bread and thin broth, two or three days of every 
week. Next to the skin he constantly wore a hairshirt and 
an iron chain about the waist, and often disciplined himself 
even to blood. So great was his love of poverty and self- 
denial that he always reserved the shabbiest habit and the 
dingiest room for himself. Despite his learning and sanc- 
tity, he thought so little of himself that Mason can not help 
remarking how condescending and considerate he was in 
his dealings with the brethren over whom he was placed. 
Thus, in the solitude of the friary at Douai, did the man 
of God prepare himself for the supreme sacrifice of his life. 
In 1641, it was teamed at Douai that the persecutions 
had again broken out in England, and that seven priests 
were in prison awaiting execution. No one in the Francis- 
can convent was more affected by these sad tidings than Fr. 
Paul, especially sinee among the condemned priests was 
his former fellow novice and friend Fr. Christopher Colman. 
This is evident from the letter which he wrote to Fr. Colman 
on hearing of his imprisonment and impending martyrdom. 



To his eminently honored and ever beloved friends, the illustrious 
Colman and companions, Greetings. 

O most estimable men, most noble friends, most excellent cham- 
pions of Jesus Christ! Your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, 
your souls are a celestial paradise, your blood is more precious than 
all the morning and evening sacrifices of Aaron and all his sons. 
Alas! how great is my misfortune not to be permitted to come to 
you, in order to share your bondage and offer myself as a sacrifice 
with that burning love for Christ which has made you so steadfast 
in your trials, so triumphant over human threats, so resplendent 
with all gems of virtue that Solomon in all his pomp was not so 
glorious as you are. O loving Jesus, what crime have I committed 
that 1 am not allowed to share your fate? Since there is nothing 



282 FRANCISCANS AND 

I desire more in this life, nothing in very deed can satisfy me so 

long as I am separated from you. Humbly, therefore, I beseech you 

to pray for me, that I may come to you and never be severed from you. 

Your unworthy servant, 

P. Magdalene.io 

As the days wore on, he was so carried away by the de- 
sire for martyrdom that he finally addressed a letter to the 
provincial, Fr. George Perrot, asking leave to come to Eng- 
land. He wrote in part : 

Neither new nor singular is this my petition, but only what stones 
and plants and other insensible creatures strive after, inasmuch as 
all things by a spontaneous and innate force incline toward the center 
and end for which they have been created. You will not, I think, 
deem that soldier brave and magnanimous who, learning that the army 
of his general is draAvn up on the field of battle, and that his fellow 
soldiers with drums and trumpets and other instruments of warfare 
are clamoring for a charge with the enemy, yet indulges himself in 
base sluggishness at home. It is true, I am unfit (I do not deny it) 
and altogether unworthy to discharge the office of an apostle and to 
contemplate encountering injury and reproach for the name of Jesus, 
but power is made perfect in infirmity, since God has chosen the 
foolish to confound the wise. Of this, too, I am convinced, that the 
obligation to serve Jesus Christ is as well incumbent on me as on 
others, and that I am certainly not less bound to suffer for him. May 
the most loving Lord inspire you with a speedy consent. 

The provincial was deeply moved by this solemn appeal. 
But there was just then a dearth of superiors and teachers 
for the Douai friary. Of this he reminded Fr. Paul, prom- 
ising, however, to summon him to the missions in good time. 
Impatiently the man of God waited for the call ; but when 
it was not forthcoming, he finally approached the commis- 
sary provincial, Fr. Angelus Mason, fell on his knees before 
him, and amid a flood of tears disclosed the anxiety and 
grief that tortured his soul. The commissary, however, 
though hardly able to refrain from weeping, was loath to 
anticipate the decision of the provincial. Now the saintly 

10. Mason had an autograph copy of this letter. Referring to the 
salutation and subscription, he reminds the reader that their unusual and 
inappropriate form was owing to the religious troubles in England, where 
letters addressed to priests were often intercepted and confiscated by the 
heretics (p. 113). 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 283 

friar had recourse to Mary, the Queen of Martyrs. In his 
childlike simplicity, he composed a beautiful letter to his 
heavenly Mother, asking her to intercede in his behalf as she 
had so often done before. With due permission, he under- 
took a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Montague in 
Brabant. Passing through Ghent, he visited the commissary 
general, Fr. Peter Marchant, and opened his heart to him. 
But his pleading was again in vain, and confident that Mary 
would not forsake him, he continued his journey to Mon- 
tague. On his way home, he once more sought out the com- 
missary general, who at last felt himself constrained to 
grant the friar 's request. * ' I opposed him, ' ' the commissary 
wrote later, ''I tested his spirit, but his zeal ran too high, 
and I finally supplied him with an obedience under the con- 
dition that his immediate superior would subjoin his ap- 
proval." Armed with this, the man of God hastened back 
to Douai and reported his success to Fr. Angelus Mason, 
who thereupon also granted the necessary permission, ' ' call- 
ing God to witness," as we read in his Certamen Seraphi- 
cuniy ''that he was impelled by some hidden force to give 
his consent." 

From that moment, Fr. Paul was a changed man. Natu- 
rally of a severe and somber aspect, his every look, word, 
and act henceforth reflected the joy and peace that reigned 
in his heart. He seemed already in possession of heavenly 
bliss when he spoke of the glory of martyrdom, or when 
at the altar he offered up the august Sacrifice. "Without de- 
lay, he made arrangements for his departure. Holy zeal 
for the strict observance of the Franciscan Rule prompted 
him to refuse the secular dress and the traveling money 
which the guardian offered him. It was a cold day in De- 
cember, 1642, when he bade farewell to his brethren and set 
out for Dunkirk. Here again he refused to take money^ 
but asked the guardian to have a sailor's suit made of his 
habit. Thus strangely attired, he boarded a ship for Dover. 
During the voyage he made friends with a German noble- 
man, who perceiving his destitute condition, paid his ex- 



284 FRANCISCANS AND 

penses, and on landing at Dover offered him money for his 
journey and subsequent stay in London. But refusing to 
accept any further assistance, the friar thanked the noble- 
man for his kindness, and despite the inclemency of the 
weather, set out to travel the forty miles on foot. 

Night was setting in, when he reached the metropolis/^ 
Not knowing whither to turn for food and lodging, he finally 
about eight o 'clock ventured into a tavern near the bridge. 
But the innkeeper finding him without money turned him 
out into the cheerless night. Overcome with hunger, and 
fatigue he sat down on a doorstep and reflected how to get 
information regarding Fr. Colman and otheirs for whom he 
had letters. Here the master of the house found him, and 
startled by his strange appearance, sent for the constable. 
When the latter arrived with his assistants, he subjected 
the holy man to a strict examination. On searching him 
they discovered certain writings which he had sewed into 
his hat before leaving Dunkirk. These roused their sus- 
picion ; they arrested him and confined him for the night in 
the Compter prison. 

The next morning, ne was brought before the mayor. 
Not knowing that he was a priest, they told him that under 
pain of life imprisonment he would be required to take the 
oaths of supremacy and of allegiance. On hearing this, Fr. 
Paul resolved to disclose his priestly character when the 
time should come, and silently prayed to God for constancy. 
All looked askance at him when he entered the courtroom. 

*' Whose papers are those that were found on thy per- 
son?" inquired the mayor, eyeing him closely .^^ 

11. The following details regarding Fr. Paul's arrest and trials are 
founded on his own narrative in English, which was preserved in the 
friary at Douai and translated into Latin by Mason (pp. 119-123). — 
London was at the time in the hands of the parliamentarians. Their ulti- 
mate ascendancy in power and the late encounters between their army and 
that of the king proved but new incentives for them to take bloody reprisals 
on the Catholics, who were known as having espoused the King's cause. 
Several priests had recently been executed, among whom were Venerable 
William Ward and Venerable John Baptist Bullaker. On the very day of 
Fr. Paul's arrival in London, the Capuchins had been dragged from their 
convent near the royal palace and thrown into prison. See Hope, p. 176. 

12. The dialogue form is ours, based on the martyr's narrative. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 285 

''They are mine," replied the friar. 

' ' What is their import ? " 
*'I wrote them for thy government and parliament, in 
order that through them I might render an account of my 
faith, should I perchance be arrested in these perilous 
times. ' ' 

''Why camest thou to England?" 

' ' I came to save souls, just as Christ Himself for the sal- 
vation of souls came down from heaven and sent out His 
Apostles, with the command. Going therefore, teach ye all 
nations; baptizing — " 

* ' Thou art a traitor ! ' ' interrupted the mayor. 

*'Then also Christ and His Apostles were traitors, be- 
cause they, too, preached contrary to the laws of the infidels 
and heretics ; wherefore, we must not abandon God for the 
sake of men, but obey God rather than men. ' ' 

"Art thou a priest?" inquired the mayor, growing sus- 
picious. 

"The priesthood instituted by Christ is something hon- 
orable," the friar returned; "for Christ Himself, a priest, 
according to the order of Melchisedech, ordained His 
Apostles priests at the last supper and commanded them to 
consecrate His sacred body; elsewhere saying. Receive ye 
the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they ar6 
forgiven them; an\i whose sins you shall retain, they are 
retained. Though unworthy of so great an honor, yet say 
I in reply to your question, I am a priest. ' ' 

"Thou are not a priest according to the order of 
Melchisedech," objected a Protestant minister, "because 
thou art of the Order of St. Francis. "^^ 

"Indeed, sir," rejoined the friar, "by those words thou 
displayest thy ignorance. For the order of St. Francis is 
an order of religion, professing to follow the example of 
Jesus Christ ; whilst the order of priesthood is an order of 
consecration for the purpose of consecrating the body and 

13. They had learned that he was a Franciscan from the writings 
found in his hat. 



286 FRANCISCANS AND 

blood of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. They, therefore, 
that receive the order of consecration are priests according 
to the order of Melchisedech, whether they be Franciscans 
or members of any other Institute." 

"Why goest thou about in so poor and mean a dress?" 
at length broke in the mayor. 

' ' Indeed, to be poor for Christ is to be rich ; even Christ 
made Himself poor for our sake, and the Apostles of Christ 
following in His footsteps, forsook all. ' * 

This brought the hearing to an end. On leaving the 
courtroom, Fr. Paul said in a tone of sweet composure, ''I 
find consolation in the example of the Apostles, who went 
from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were 
accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus.'' 
Since he had confessed himself a priest, he was conducted 
to Newgate and placed with criminals already condemned 
to death. 

Some time later, he was summoned to appear before the 
commissioners of parliament. Here again he openly pro- 
claimed and fearlessly defended his priestly character. 
When asked why he had come to England, he answered : 

''I came to free souls from the slavery of the devil and 
to convert them from heresy. ' ' 

* * From which heresy T ' his enemies insisted. 

"From the Protestant, Puritan, Brownist, Anabaptist, 
and many others; for as many as profess these are justly 
termed heretics. ' ' 

According to De Marsys who was present at the trial, 
he steadfastly refused to reveal the names of those who had 
given him pecuniary assistance, and answered their various 
objections with such a display of learning and alertness as 
to elicit the admiration of the bystanders.^* 

During his confinement in Newgate, he penned the fol- 
lowing letter to a priest : 

Very Eeverend Father: Your consolations have filled my soul 
with joy. The judges have not yet passed sentence. I beseech the 
14. Hope, p. 180. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 287 

divine mercy, that it may turn out as I desire, to suffer death for my 
Lord Jesus Christ. Alas! Father, what else can I wish than to 
suffer with Christ, to be rejected with Christ, to be crucified with 
Christ, to encounter a thousand deaths in order to live forever with 
Christ? For, if it is a soldier's boast to be like unto his lord, far 
be it from me to glory in aught save in the cross of the Crucified. 
Let them come, therefore, let the executioners come, let them tear 
my body into bits, let them gnaw away my flesh with their teeth, let 
them pierce my sides and grind me to dust. For I am fully aware 
and I know for certain, how much it profiteth me to die for Christ. 
This momentary suffering secures the eternal measure of celestial 
glory. Keverend Father, pray for me, a miserable sinner, who in the 
wounds of the Crucified will ever be, until death is swallowed up by 
victory, 

Your Reverence's most devoted 

Fr. Paul of Saint Magdalene. 

At the opening of the assizes, on April 11, the valiant 
champion was summoned for the final hearing. After the 
prescribed court formalities were gone through, he began 
to deliver an apology^ ^ which he had prepared for the 
occasion. 

''Most noble lords," he said, "I deem myself fortunate 
in being permitted to propose and defend the justice of my 
cause before so venerable an assembly. At one time, to be 
candid, up to my twenty-fourth year, I was a Protestant, 
professing the same heresy that you now profess, but to 
quote Job, let the day perish wherein I was horn, and the 
night in which it was said: a man-child is conceived. In like 
manner can I denounce and execrate the day on which I be- 
gan to imbibe the Protestant superstition." 

''Stop him instantly," exclaimed the judge, "or a pad- 
lock shall be put on his mouth. Evidently his sole purpose 
is to cast slurs and abuses on our religion ; therefore, let him 
eschew all digression and reply directly to the accusation." 

At this, the saintly friar again openly declared his 
priesthood, maintaining that the laws condemning priests 
were tyrannical and unchristian. 

15. For a Latin version of ttiis apology see Mason, pp. 126-138. The 
autlaor observes (p. 126) tliat the martyr delivered the entire oration either 
in the court room after sentence of death had been pronounced or on the 
scaffold shortly before his execution. 



288 FRANCISCANS AND 

'*Art thou guilty or not guilty?" they insisted. 

' * If the term guilty implies a crime, then I am not guilty ; 
but if it involves what I have already confessed, then I am 
guilty.'^ 

*'Art thou not a dead man?" suggested one of the by- 
standers. 

''To die for Christ is the greatest glory," came the 
quick reply. 

Without further ado, the judge condemned him to death. 
At this, the friar's face beamed with joy. 

**I thank the most august assembly," he said, making 
a low bow, "for the singular honor bestowed upon me."^^ 

In Newgate, Fr. Paul devoted much of his time to the 
spiritual comfort of his fellow prisoners and of the Catho- 
lics who flocked to him from all parts of the city. Many 
came to have him bless the cord with which they girded 
themselves in honor of St. Francis; others brought holy 
pictures and asked him to put his signature to them. More 
than five hundred persons, we are told, received the sacra- 
ment of Confession at his hands. Forty Protestant minis- 
ters. Mason relates, disputed with the prisoner on matters 
of faith. So completely did he expose the fallacy of Protes- 
tantism that afterwards, in the presence of the Spanish 
ambassador, many acknowledged their defeat and openly 
bewailed the sad lot of so learned and accomplished a man. 
The valiant friar, however, gloried in the assurance of soon 
winning that crown for which he had yearned so many 
years. When asked how he could be so happy with death 
staring him in the face, he replied, "I never doubted that 
my most merciful God would grant a special sweetness to 
those who lay down their life for justice and in defense of 
the faith, but never could I have conceived it to be so ex- 
cessive as that which I now experience, and which so over- 
whelms and melts my soul that I can hardly bear it."^^ 

How he must have rejoiced when at last it was told him 

16. Here the martyr's narrative ends. 

17. Stone, p. 173. See also Oaudentius, who quotes Challoner, p. 179. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 289 

that on the following Monday, April 27, he would be exe- 
cuted at Tyburn.^* The little time he could spare from his 
charitable ministrations was spent in prayer and medita- 
tion. On the morning of the appointed day, he placed his 
signature to the following protestation: 

I, the undersigned, prepared through the grace and favor of my 
sweetest Jesus to offer my life today in defense of His holy law and 
of the Eoman Catholic Church, and to render unto Him the most 
excellent homage I can conceive, next to the winning of souls, do 
hereby with my whole heart declare unto all, but especially unto 
Catholics whom it more concerns, that the so-called oath of allegiance 
can not and ought not, with any restrictions or interpretations, be 
taken by them in its proposed form, without incurring grevious sin 
and the certain ruin of their souls, unless they repent. In defense of 
this I would lay down my lifei9 just as readily as I would for any 
other article of, or for our entire, holy faith. I am fully convinced 
that I should not die righteously, were I to hold any other doctrine 
or opinion regarding that oath. In testimony whereof, now about to 
give my life for the cause of God, I subscribe with my own hand and 
name, in Newgate, Monday, April 27, 1643. 

Thus I hold, Fr. Paul of St. Magdalene, now destined for the 
scaffold.20 

This solemn declaration of faith the man of God read 
aloud on his way through prison. When the guards led him 
to the hurdle, he asked to be tied to the horses ' tails and in 

18. Most authors and also the Franciscan Martyrology of Fr. Arturus 
assign April 17 as the daj' on which Fr. Paul suffered martyrdom. In this, 
they follow the Old Style of reckoning. From the martyr himself, who 
adopts the New Style, we learn that it was April 27. In either case, how- 
ever, April 27 (N. S.) and April 17 (O. S.) was a Monday in 1643. 

19. It must be borne in mind that Venerable Heath suffered death 
not so much for refusing to take the prescribed oath, but primarily for 
being a priest and having come to England in defiance of the existing laws. 

20. Following is the attestation which shortly after, on May 8 (N. S.), 
three Jesuits drew up and together with the protestation presented to the 
Franciscans at Douai : 

We, the undersigned, do testify that the reverend father and already 
glorious martyr. Father Paul of St. Magdalene, of the Order of St. Francis, 
called in the world Henry Heath, read the above protestation or resolution 
carefully, and that he wished to add the suhscrihed toords to what he had 
read, in order to express himself more definitely regarding the injustice of 
that oath, and that he then said: With all my heart I affix my hand to this 
paper and am ready to sign it a thousand times with my hlood. In testi- 
mony ichereof, we, the undersigned, have placed our signature. On this, 
the 28th day of April, old style, 1643. 

Thomas Harvey, 
Simon de Mazaron, 
William Jordan. 



290 FRANCISCANS AND 

this way dragged to the place of execution. But they ignored 
his request and having bound him to his bed of pain dashed 
off over the rough roads to Tyburn. 

On reaching the place of execution, Fr. Paul was re- 
leased from the hurdle and commanded to mount the cart 
that was standing below the gallows. He obeyed, praying 
with a loud voice : Into Thy hands, Lord, I commend my 
spint. Then the rope was placed about his neck, and he was 
given leave to address the assembled multitude. He told 
the people that he had come to England in the hope of dying 
for the defense and propagation of the Roman Catholic 
Faith, and for this faith as well as for his priestly char- 
acter was he now on the point of shedding his blood. Here, 
however, the Protestant ministers interrupted him, saying 
that he had been sentenced to death not on account of his 
faith, but because he was a seducer of the people. 

''With no more right can I be called a seducer,'* re- 
turned the fearless martyr, "than my Lord Jesus Christ 
was called a seducer by the Jews.'* 

Nettled by this bold retort, they ordered him to be silent. 
Thereupon, he asked leave of the sheriff to die like his divine 
Savior, stripped of his outer garments, assuring him that 
he had made such preparations of clothing as decency would 
demand. Instead of an answer, the sheriff told him to pre- 
pare for death. Raising his eyes to heaven, he remained 
motionless in prayer for about half an hour. Suddenly re- 
membering that it was the feast of the Martyr-Pope, St. 
Anicetus, he intoned the hymn, 

Martyr of God, who following 
The instance of God's only Son, 

Hast triumphed o'er thy enemies, 
And triumphing hast heaven won. 

Having recited the hymn to the end, he raised his hands, 
thereby signifying to a priest in the crowd that he was pre- 
pared to receive the last absolution. This same grace, the 
martyr himself imparted to one of the criminals who also 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 291 

was about to die, and who touched with contrition at sight 
of the saintly priest had asked to be reconciled with God. 

At last, the executioners advanced to carry out the sen- 
tence. While they were making the final preparations, Fr. 
Paul repeatedly invoked the names of Jesus and Mary, 
concluding, ' ' O Jesus, forgive me my sins ! Jesus, convert 
England ! Jesus, have mercy on this country ! England, 
be converted to the Lord thy God ! ' ' Then, with a sudden 
jolt the cart was drawn from under his feet and the holy 
man hung suspended beneath the gallows. A brief strug- 
gle, and his soul passed to the mansions of eternal bliss. By 
a singular exception, he was not cut down until death had 
set in, whereupon the executioners proceeded to perform 
their bloody task. The head was placed on London Bridge, 
while the quarters were exposed on four gates of the city.^^ 
At the moment of Fr. Paul 's death, tradition says, his aged 
father, who was still living as lay brother at Douai, saw a 
brilliant light ascending into heaven and turning to some 
of the brethren told them that his son had just then died 
for the faith. They believed in the truth of this vision when 
a few days later the news of his martyrdom arrived.^^ 

In the Franciscan Martyrology of Fr. Arturus of Muen- 
ster, Venerable Paul Heath is commemorated on April 14, 
in these terms: ''At London in England, B. Paul of St. 
Magdalene, Martyr, who shed his blood in defense of the 
Catholic faith. "23 

21. Count Egmont was present at the execution and had his servants 
gather a number of the martyr's relics. The Franciscan nuns at Taunton 
treasure a piece of the rope with which Venerable Heath was hung, a bone 
about three inches long, and a corporal dipped in his blood. See Stone, 
p. 176. 

22. Thaddeus, p. 250. See also Hope, p. 186, and Gaudentius, p. 180, 
on the authority of Challoner. Mason does not mention this apparition, 
probably because the martyr's father was still living in 1649, the year 
when the Certamen SerapMcum was published. The venerable old lay 
brother died on December 29, 1652, at Douai. 

23. His name is on the list of the English martyrs, contained in the 
Acta Mirvorum (Vol, VI, p. 49 seq.). He is also among the companions 
of Venerable Francis Bel, whose cause of beatification received a new 
impulse in 1900. See Ortolani, De Causis Beatorum et Servorum Dei 
Ordinia Minorum, p. 14. 



CHAPTER VI 

VENERABLE FRANCIS BEL, 0. F. M. 

Of wealthy Catholic parents — Student at Saint-Omer and 
at Valladolid — Ordained priest — Seeks admission into 
the Franciscan Order — Novitiate and profession — Sum- 
moned to the English Province — Priestly zeal in Flan- 
ders — Provincial of Scotland — Missionary in England — 
His character — Arrested as royal spy — Suspected of be- 
ing a priest — Conveyed to London for trial — Before the 
commissioners of parliament — In Newgate — His trial — 
Guilty of treason — Condemned to death — Last days in 
Newgate — Drawn to Tyhurn — Martyrdom. 

About six miles from Worcester, in the parish of Han- 
bury, stood a beautiful residence, styled the Manor House of 
Temple-Broughton.^ Here was born, on January 13, 1590, 
Venerable Francis Bel.^ Though belonging to the wealthy 
class, his parents were widely known as staunch and prac- 
tical Catholics. His mother, of an ancient family by the 
name of Daniel, is praised by Mason as a virtuous and ac- 
complished woman. From her it was especially that Arthur, 
as the future martyr, had been named in Baptism, acquired 
those habits of piety and refinement that characterized his 
later career. 

After the death of his father, in 1598, Arthur remained 
till his thirteenth year with his mother, who meanwhile 
entrusted to private tutors his elementary education. There- 

1. Unless otherwise stated, our narrative is based on Mason, Certa- 
men Seraphiciim, pp. 147-181. The author's sources of information were 
the martyr's own account of his arrest and trial, and a life of the martyr 
written by Du Bosque, who was an eye-witness of what he relates (Mason 
p. 180). 

2. We adopt this spelling of the friar's name in conformity with his 
own signature to a letter still preserved by the Franciscan Sisters at Taun- 
ton. Stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 182, brings a photographic reprint of it. 

292 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 



293 




Venerable Francis Bel, O. F. M. 



294 FRANCISCANS AND 

upon, she sent him to Acton Place in Suffolk, to join his 
two cousins in their studies and amusements. Here he re- 
mained till his twenty-fourth year. 

Already as a boy, Arthur gave unmistakable signs of a 
higher calling. Hence his relatives were not surprised when 
he told them of his intention to embrace the priestly and 
religious state. His saintly mother was overjoyed when she 
heard of it and gladly gave her consent. Accordingly, in 
1614, he bade farewell to his kindred and departed for the 
Jesuit College of Saint-Omer in Flanders. A year later, 
having learned that he wished to join their Order, the 
Fathers sent him to Valladolid in Spain. Here he devoted 
three years to the study of philosophy and theology ; where- 
upon, in consideration of his unusual progress in virtue and 
learning, his superiors had him ordained priest. 

Two years before this event, in 1616, the restoration of 
the English Franciscan Province, begun by Fr. John Gen- 
nings, had received the official approbation of the Belgian 
commissary. Since then, the province had made rapid 
progress. A number of English Franciscans had joined it, 
among whom was Fr. Nicholas Day, sometime professor of 
theology in the friary of Segovia, Spain. Father Bel prob- 
ably heard of this, and knowing what the sons of St. Francis 
had suffered in England during the first period of the re- 
ligious upheaval, he asked his superiors for permission to 
join the ranks of Fr. Gennings. Gladly they granted his 
request when they realized that it was more than a passing 
fancy. The rector of the college made the necessary ar- 
rangements with the provincial of the Spanish Franciscans, 
and on August 9, 1618, Fr. Sebastian de Salazar, guardian 
at Segovia, vested the pious Jesuit with the garb of St. 
Francis. 

Although a priest, Fr. Francis deemed himself the least 
among his fellow novices. In humility, mortification, and 
prayer, he earnestly strove to become a worthy follower 
of the Saint whose name he was privileged henceforth to 
bear. The year of probation sped quickly by, and, on Sep- 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 295 

tember 8, 1619, he made his profession in the hands of Fr. 
Joseph of St. Clare. With redoubled zeal, he now resumed 
his theological studies. Before the end of the year, however, 
he received the following letter^ from the commissary gen- 
eral : 

Whereas, our Most Eeverend Father General, Benignus of Genua^ 
has committed to me the care of sending to England and Scotland 
such fathers as seem suitable to labor in the Lord 's vineyard, for the 
comfort of Catholics, who groan under the heavy yoke of persecu- 
tion, and for the restoration and preservation of our Order in those 
parts; and as he has given me power to call English and Scotch 
Eeligious from any province whatever; I enjoin you, in whose zeal 
and piety I trust, in virtue of holy obedience, to come to these parts 
at your earliest convenience, in order to be sent into the Lord's 
harvest there, or to prepare yourself for the mission here among your 
countrymen, until you shall be judged fit to go. I herewith recom- 
mend you to our prelates as well as to the faithful of the places where 
you happen to stop on the way. 

Given at Brussels, on the last day of December, 1619. 

Father Andrew a Soto, 

Commissary General. 

Fr. Francis immediately presented the letter to the 
Spanish provincial and with his consent and blessing set out 
for Flanders. Great was the joy at Douai when he arrived. 
The next two years he attended the Benedictine College of 
St. Vedast, in order to complete his theological course. At 
last, having passed the necessary examination, he received 
faculties to exercise his priestly office. During the year 
1622, he served as confessor to the Poor Clares at Grave- 
lines; whereupon he was appointed in the same capacity 
for the newly founded community of Franciscan Sisters of 
the Third Order at Brussels. Here the saintly and learned 
friar was active for seven successive years, directing the 
nuns on the road of perfection and counseling them in the 
management of their temporal affairs. To this day, the 
community, now residing at Taunton in Somerset, revere 
the venerable martyr as their founder and chief benefactor.* 

3. See Thaddeus, The Franciscans in England, p. 201. 

4. They were compelled to quit France at the time of the French 
Revolution, See Thaddeus, p. 46. 



296 FRANCISCANS AND 

In the meantime, the number of English friars and their 
mission activity in England had increased to such an extent 
that, in 1629, the minister general thought it feasible to 
organize an independent province. The next year, as we 
have seen, the first provincial chapter was held in the con- 
vent of the Franciscan Sisters at Brussels. At this chapter 
Fr. Francis was declared provincial definitor and was 
appointed guardian and professor of Hebrew at Douai. His 
stay at St. Bonaventure 's, however, was of short duration. 

The Belgian commissary general, in 1632, sent him as 
provincial to Scotland with orders to reorganize the Fran- 
ciscans in that country into a province. Accordingly, to 
the great sorrow of the brethren, Fr. Francis left for Toledo, 
Spain, to attend the general chapter, and from there he set 
out for Scotland. ' ' It was certainly not Father Bel 's fault, ' ' 
Thaddeus observes ,' ' that his efforts were not crowned with 
success. But the time was not opportune for the restoration 
of the Order in Scotland."^ After two years, therefore, 
Fr. Francis was permitted to take up mission work in Eng- 
land, as he had long desired. Here he spent the last nine 
years of his life, becoming titular guardian of London, in 
1637, and provincial definitor for a second term, three years 
later. 

Both in Belgium and on the English missions, Fr. Fran- 
cis was beloved and esteemed by all who came in touch with 
him. Though severe wi*h himself and zealous for the 
observance of the Rule, he was affable and obliging towards 
others, and governed by example rather than by precept. 
Naturally of a sunny disposition, his very look and word 
bespoke the inner joy that none but the humble and morti- 
fied know. In him the brethren found a charitable and 
sociable confrere, a prudent and solicitous superior. Fr. 
Angelus Mason, who was a novice at Douai in 1631, sums 
up his character in Certamen Ser^aphicum, by saying, 
' ' Father Francis Bel was a true son of the seraphic Father 
St. Francis. ' '^ He further tells us that the brethren wept 

5. Thaddeus, p. 39. 6. Mason, p. 157, 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 297 

when their beloved guardian departed for his mission in 
Scotland. Like Venerable Paul Heath, Fr. Francis was a 
man of prayer and recollection. He, too, fostered a tender 
devotion to Mary the Mother of God. In keeping with a 
vow he had made, he recited the Little Office of the Blessed 
Virgin every day; and to ensure proper attention, he was 
wont to say it in the seven languages with which he was con- 
versant, Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, French, Flemish, 
and English. 

Equally fervent was his love of prayer and mortification 
while on the missions in England. In fact, the nine last 
years of his life may be aptly styled one long preparation for 
martyrdom. ''Francis du Mont," writes De Marsys, ''had 
thus ample scope for observing the martyr, without being 
seen, and he has told me that he often saw Father Bel, with 
extended arms, absorbed in prayer, and that he would 
remain thus, for two or three hours together, several times a 
day. He also remarked that Father Bel was abstemious to 
the verge of singularity. ... I must add," he con- 
tinues, "that Monsieur Langlois, Preacher to the Count 
d 'Harcourt, who had the honor to converse with the martyr 
two days before his death, and to whom it had been given to 
sound the secret depths of his soul, declares that he recog- 
nized in him all the marks of perfect sanctity, of a mind long 
detached from all material things. I pray God that his 
example and his prayers may sow in us some seeds of holi- 
ness."^ Such is the verdict of men who were intimately 
acquainted with the martyr. 

Early in 1643, Fr. Joseph Bergaigne, then archbishop 
of Cambray, was directed by Pope Urban VIII to gather 
evidence regarding the martyrdoms that had recently taken 
place in England. On the committee appointed for this 
purpose by the Archbishop was Fr. Francis.® "It is proba- 
ble," says Stone, "that the attention of parliament was 
directed to Father Bel, from the fact of his name appearing 

7. Quoted by Stone, pp. 206 seq. 

8. Hope, Franciscan Martijrs in England, pp. 192 seq. — Fr. William 
AndertoD also was on the commission. Thaddeus, p. 191. 



298 FRANCISCANS AND 

on the list of commissioners, for on the day that the report 
was published he was himself called upon to take his place 
among the martyrs. ' '^ Only a few months before, on Octo- 
ber 16, he had met Venerable John Baptist Bullaker at 
Newgate and, we may suppose, had accompanied him to 
Tyburn, so that now he was in a position to give evidence in 
his case. Ever since, too, the thought of martyrdom, of 
which Fr. John Baptist had assured him, was uppermost in 
his mind. For the past twenty years he had been praying 
for this inestimable grace by daily reciting the thirty-fifth 
psalm. Little, however, did he think while investigat- 
ing the recent martyrdoms, that his own was so close at 
hand. 

It was on Monday, November 6, that the saintly mis- 
sionary hired a horse at Brigstock in Northamptonshire and 
set out for London, where he had his headquarters. His 
appearance the next day at Stevenage, a little town in Hert- 
fordshire, roused the suspicions of the garrison stationed 
there. Taking him for a royal spy, they searched him and 
found three papers written in Latin and Spanish. Two of 
these were of a devotional character; while the third, an 
indifferent note addressed to the Spanish ambassador, re- 
vealed the fact that he was a Franciscan. ^^ Unable to 
decipher the writings, the soldiers summoned the local school- 
master, who, to shield his ignorance, pompously declared 
that the papers contained very serious and dangerous mat- 
ters. On this verdict the friar was arrested. 

The next morning he was taken to Hertford and placed 
in the custody of Marshal Thomas Jones. During the day 
army officials and prominent citizens visited the suspected 
priest. In the course of the conversation a drummer 
stepped forward and asked him of what religion he was. 

9. stone, p. 183. 

10. The note read : "Most excellent sir, Father Francis Bel, of the 
Order of St. Francis, professed at Segovia, declares that he most grate- 
fully accepts your offer to remain in your house : but he humbly requests 
not to be bound by the condition so destructive to his calling, that he should 
not leave the house on behalf of his neighbor's welfare, for such a con- 
dition he can not agree to." 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 299 

'*I am a Catholic," replied the friar. 

"A Roman Catholic?" insisted the other. 

''Why, I told you I was an Englishman. How then can 
I be a Roman ? As to the Catholic Church, however, there 
can be only one Catholic Church, of which I am a member. 
This, with the help of God, I will profess till my dying 
hour." 

' ' Dost thou believe, ' ' another bystander broke in, ' ' that 
the Pope is the supreme head of the Catholic Church ? ' ' 

''I do," came the fearless reply; ''neither did I ever 
doubt it." 

This provoked a hot disputation between the friar and 
his enemies. To prove their heretical tenets, the latter 
brought several bibles. Finding the text very corrupt, the 
man of God severely rebuked his hearers for doing such vio- 
lence to the word of God. The disputation continued for 
some time, when finally the Puritans, seeing themselves 
worsted, declared that in religious matters no certainty 
could be had. At this blindness and obstinacy, the friar 
grew warm with indignation. 

"To call every religion doubtful," he contended, "is not 
the way to attract others to yours, but rather to confirm 
them in that Church 's doctrine to which Christ has promised 
infallibility. All your efforts are directed to this: while 
declaring all religions to be in error, you attempt to draw 
me from that which can not err to that which needs must 
err, and thus you deprive me of what I possess and leave me 
nothing. In fine, you deal with my soul as you have dealt 
with my body, which you have robbed of all its clothes and 
instead have fitted out in rags. Rest assured, outside the 
Catholic Church there is no salvation; and I wish you all 
were like me, excepting my bonds. ' ' 

Completely baffled by this boldness and sincerity, the 
crowd gradually dispersed; whereupon the friar was con- 
ducted before the civil authorities. On delivering his writ- 
ings to the parliamentary commissioner, the marshal warned 
him to have the prisoner carefully guarded, because one of 



300 FRANCISCANS AND 

the papers contained an incantation by means of which he 
could escape through any prison bars. 

''Art thou come from abroad?" asked the presiding 
officer, turning to the friar. 

"I am," he answered. 

"Hast thou received holy orders?" 

''That is considered a crime; wherefore no one will 
answer such a question. ' * 

"The prisoner is mine, by right of my office," fell in 
the marshal, filled with rage. "I reserve him for further 
investigation. ' ' 

With this, he advanced and once more subjected his 
victim to a most degrading examination. Finding a key on 
his person, the wretch demanded under threat of severe 
torture that the prisoner reveal the whereabouts of the lock 
to which the key belonged. Perceiving that it would not be 
to the detriment of his Catholic friends and benefactors, Fr. 
Francis replied that the porter of the* Spanish ambassador 
had it. 

During the following night, which the friar spent in 
close study, his keeper robbed him of all his clothes so that 
the next morning he was forced to don a tattered uniform 
given him by one of the soldiers. Thus scantily clad and 
with his hands bound behind him, he was placed on a horse 
and hastened off to London. In the various towns through 
which their journey led them, the servant of God became the 
laughing-stock of the people who gathered on the street 
corners to hail with insults and abuses this latest victim of 
Puritan intolerence.^^ 

When they arrived in London, Marshal Jones confined 
his prisoner in a hotel and ordered him to send for his trunk. 
Fr. Francis complied, fearing a refusal might inconvenience 
his friends and benefactors. When the trunk arrived, the 
marshal took possession of all its contents. 

Two guards now conducted the friar before the commis- 

11. "Helpless and half naked," the friar wrote in his account, "I rode 
on a hired horse, all too great a parade, however, for one who professes to 
carry the cross and to follow Christ." — Mason, p. 163. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 301 

sioners of parliament. While they were waiting at the door 
of the courtroom, the man of God was rebuked and insulted 
by the passers-by. At last, the commissioners were ready to 
receive them. After the preliminary questions regarding 
name, birthplace and religion had been answered, Mr. 
Corbet, one of the commissioners, began to ask the prisoner 
about certain persons mentioned in the papers that had been 
taken from him. 

''Prithee, question me not about any third person," the 
friar rejoined, "because my conscience forbids me to injure 
others. "12 

''Such considerations are out of season," threw in Mr. 
Whitaker, "when the public weal is the issue." 

' ' Is this thy writing ? ' ' they then demanded, producing 
the friar's note to the Spanish ambassador. 

" It is, " came the ready reply ; ' ' but it is only an imper- 
fect sketch of what I had in mind to write. ' ' 

' ' Art thou, as the writing shows, a member of the Order 
of St. Francis?" 

Here the friar hesitated.^^ 

' ' Several others, ' ' urged his enemies, ' ' have been brought 
before us, who wisely admitted it. ' ' 

' ' I am a poor penitent of the Order of St. Francis ; but 
it is becoming for everyone to do penance. ' ' 

"Art thou a priest?" 

"That question should not be put; for, if I say yes, I 
own myself guilty of a crime; if I say no, my denial will 
implicate others." 

' ' Is this thy breviary ? ' ' 

"It is ; and it contains many pious prayers dictated by 
the Holy Spirit." 

"Aye, but interspersed with idolatrous ones that poison 
all the rest, ' ' broke in Whitaker. 

' ' Forsooth, it is no breviary at all, but a missal, ' ' clam- 

12. The dialogue form is ours, based on Mason's narrative. 

13. He feared for the convenience of his friends in the city, whom he 
endeavored to shield from harm throughout his trial. 



302 FRANCISCANS AND 

ored some of the bystanders, examining the book from all 
sides. 

Here Fr. Francis explained to them the difference be- 
tween a Roman breviary and a Roman missal. In the mean- 
time, the judges agreed on the sentence to be passed. The 
prisoner had admitted being a Franciscan; moreover, sus- 
picions were strong that he was also a priest. For the pres- 
ent, therefore, he must be confined in Newgate. 

The next day, Fr. Francis received a letter from the 
provincial urging him to come to Douai and take the place 
of Ven. Paul Heath. In reply, the man of God penned the 
following note : 

Eeverend Fatlier — I received your behest with all due humility 
and readiness to follow it. Some twenty-four hours before it came 
to my notice, I had already begun to take the place of Fr. Heath ir. 
Newgate. As for the rest, I ask your prayers that I may persevere 
unto the end. With St. Andrew, I likewise entreat all Christians not 
to thwart my martyrdom. 

Your poor brother, 

Francis Bel. 

To the letter from the commissary provincial, which 
arrived a few days later and also summoned him to Douai, he 
answered that he would obey as soon as the present impedi- 
ment, for which he had no excuse, would be removed; then 
he playfully explained the nature of this impediment : how 
he had been arrested, tried, and thrown into Newgate. Ex- 
pressing his desire to die for Christ, he at the same time 
declared his willingness to forgo this privelege if such were 
the will of God. After asking his superior to pray for him, 
he concluded with the assurance that, were he to escape the 
death sentence, he would use every lawful means to recover 
his liberty so as to be able to obey. 

On December 7, the servant of God was summoned to the 
mayor 's bench. His indictment having been read aloud, the 
judge asked him what he had to offer in his defence. 

* * Where are my accusers ? ' ' demanded the friar. 

* ' Thou shalt face them to-morrow. For the present, de- 
clare whether thou art guilty or not. ' ' 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 303 

' ' To cross the sea, receive holy orders, and return hither, 
I deem no crime. Therefore, I plead not guilty. ' ' 

' ' Reply to the question ! ' ' snapped the judge. ' ' What is 
thy answer ? ' ^ 

^'The same that I already gave to the high commis- 
sioners ; I have no other to give. ' ' 

''That one we have; in addition, however, we now de- 
mand an answer in legal form; namely, art thou guilty or 
not guilty?" 

''Very well, if such be the manner of your procedure, 
then I maintain that I am not guilty. ' ' 

' ' By whom wouldst thou be judged ? ' ' 

This question, it seems, perplexed the friar ; he was at a 
loss what to say. 

"By God and thy country!" suggested one of the by- 
standers. 

' ' By God and my country, ' ' repeated the friar. 

With this, the guards approached and led him back to 
Newgate. 

The next morning, the feast of the Immaculate Concep- 
tion, Fr. Francis was again placed at the bar. After swear- 
ing in the twelve jurymen, the judge ordered the witnesses 
to advance their accusations against the prisoner. Imme- 
diately, James Wadsworth and three other notorious apos- 
tates stepped forth and testified that they knew the prisoner 
to be a priest. One of them, Thomas Gage, made such a 
botch of it that he was sharply reproached by the bench and 
told to retire. Another, not having been sufficiently in- 
structed what to say, had little evidence to offer. At last, 
when the witnesses had finished their wretched testimony, 
the judge turned to the prisoner. 

' ' What hast thou to say in reply to these depositions ? ' ' 
he asked. 

"The witnesses," boldly retorted the friar, "are men of 
ill repute, and therefore they should find no credence. ' ' 

"Well, what objections hast thou to present against 
them?" 



304 FRANCISCANS AND 

''All are apostates from the Catholic faith. Now, in all 
justice, men who have broken their troth with God can not 
and should not enjoy the confidence of their fellow men." 

"Thy objection is without weight," they shouted. 
"Hast thou anything to propose to the jury in thy 
defence?" 

' ' I have not ; but I trust they are Christians. I am not 
a priest of the order of Levi," he subjoined, "according to 
the priesthood of Aaron ; nor, indeed, would it be wise for 
one called by God to the priesthood to pass by the fountain 
itself and drink of the muddy water." 

"Thou speakest mysteriously. Hast thou anything else 
to say?" 

' ' Nothing ; I refer you to the answers I gave at my trial 
before the high commissioners. ' ' 

Thereupon a copy of the proceedings was presented to 
him. Having read it through, he handed it back without a 
word of comment. In the meantime, the jurymen went out 
for consultation. After a short time, they returned and 
declared the friar guilty of the charges brought against him. 
On hearing this, Fr. Francis thanked the jury, declaring 
that he was ready to die for his faith and profession. But 
sentence of death was not immediately passed. The judges, 
overawed by the noble and fearless bearing of the martyr, 
still hoped that in the end he would relent. Hence they gave 
orders that he be led back to prison, where he would have 
time to reflect on what was in store for him. 

"Mr. Bel," said one of the judges, "you will be cut open 
while you are still alive, and with your own eyes you will see 
your entrails burnt before your face ; wherefore we beseech 
you to abjure the Roman Church, or at least the priesthood, 
so as to avoid this disgraceful and cruel punishment." 

"You can condemn me," retorted the man of God, "to 
a light and temporal punishment; but the Protector and 
Avenger of the innocent can condemn you to a punishment 
which shall last eternally. ' '^"^ 

14. This incident is taken from Hope, p. 206. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 305 

That same afternoon he was again cited to court to hear 
his sentence. Although he realized that he would be con- 
demned to death, his heart was filled with inexpressible joy. 

' ' My accusers, ' ' he said, ' ' have borne witness against me ; 
the twelve jurymen have pronounced me guilty. Most 
heartily I thank them ; for with greatest readiness and joy 
I will die with Christ and his Apostles and Martyrs, inas- 
much as their cause is my own. But since the matter on 
which I intend to speak is of equal and even greater impor- 
tance than that of the prophets of old, I will invoke, as they 
did, heaven and earth. Be astonished, ye heavens, and be 
confounded, earth ! to behold a Christian State, professing 
Christ and his Gospel and yet condemning for treason the 
priesthood which was founded by Christ and which rests on 
the Gospel ; the priesthood, I say, which upholds the Gospel 
and which in turn is upheld by the Gospel. For this reason 
I asked this morning, whether the jurymen were Christians ; 
meaning that Christians would perhaps condemn priests of 
the order of Aaron but not of the order of Christ, and that 
Jews might condemn priests of Christ but not priests of 
Levi. What you then called mystical I shall now explain. 
If anyone has from God a vocation to the priesthood, let him 
seek it there where the succession is indisputably certain 
and where it has never been interrupted since the time of 
Christ, namely in Rome; not there, however, where it is 
doubtful and unquestionably defective, as is the case with 
the Protestants; for certain it is that in the Protestant 
Church there is no true priesthood. ' ' 

Here the clerk interposed: 

**We are to comply with the laws under which we were 
born and under which, you confessed, you, too, have been 
bom.'* 

"Quite correct, I admit," replied the friar; '^forsooth, 
had I been born among pagans and infidels, I should submit 
to their laws in so far as they were not opposed to the law 
of God. Know ye, therefore, that they who first enacted 
these laws, have long ago and irrevocably obtained what they 



306 FEANOISCANS AND 

deserved. Wherefore, let those be prudently and betimes 
on their guard and look to their consciences who are now 
charged or will yet be charged with the office of executing 
these laws.'' 

' ' Is there anything else you would like to say ? ' ' queried 
the judge with cynic indifference. 

"I have no more to say/' returned the martyr. "I re- 
sign myself into your hands. ' ' 

At a sign from the judge, the guards approached and 
shackled the friar's hands, a ceremony that was generally 
dispensed with in the case of priests. Then the judge arose 
and solemnly pronounced sentence of death. Fr. Francis 
was overjoyed when he heard it and with a loud voice in- 
toned the Te Deum. Before leaving the courtroom, he 
turned to the judges and thanked them. They in turn re- 
minded him of the terrible torments and death his obstinacy 
was preparing for him. 

'*I beseech God," said the friar with trembling voice, 
^'to grant through his infinite mercy that not greater tor- 
ments befall you in the next world than those that await me 
in this." 

As usual. Catholics as well as Protestants flocked to New- 
gate to see the condemned priest during the two days pre- 
ceding his execution. For all the saintly friar had a word 
of comfort or warning, as the case demanded. Many were 
moved to tears that one so gentle and refined in his manners 
should be condemned to a death so painful and revolting. 
But the valiant hero only rejoiced in the anticipation of the 
eternal reward that was to follow. 

'*I am astonished," he said repeatedly to his visitors, 
**that God should have been pleased to honor me with the 
crown of martyrdom, and that he should have chosen me, a 
miserable being, rather than the many holy men now in 
England, who are aspiring to this happiness. ' ^^^ 

On Sunday morning, he celebrated Mass and adminis- 
tered Holy Communion to a number of Catholics. During 

15. Hope, p. 209. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 307 

the day, four Protestant ministers came at the behest of 
parliament to dispute with the martyr on doctrinal matters. 
But they were outwitted at every turn and in the end were 
compelled to beat an inglorious retreat, much to the satis- 
faction of the bystanders. Ever since sentence of death had 
been pronounced, the Spanish and the French ambassadors 
were taking steps for his acquittal. When Fr. Francis 
heard of it, however, he became sad and even reproached the 
prior of St. Magdalen, when the latter told him that they 
were trying to obtain grace for him. 

"Alas ! dost thou deem it a grace, ^ ' he said, "to be robbed 
of the crown I have desired so long ? Till now, I considered 
thee my friend; but, let me tell thee, if thou persist in thy 
design, I shall no longer regard thee as my friend, but as my 
greatest enemy. I beseech thee, do not prevent my martyr- 
dom. I conjure thee, do not oppose my death which is 
my greatest happiness; whatever steps thou takest, I shall 
invoke the most holy Mother of God and St. Andrew that 
no one in the end may deprive me of the cross which I see 
before me. ' ' 

When, at last, night set in, the man of God dismissed his 
visitors, saying it was his wish to be left alone the remaining 
few hours of his life, so as to prepare himself for the sacrifice 
he was to offer on the morrow. The entire night he spent in 
prayer and meditation. Early next morning he rose to say 
Mass for the last time and to give Holy Communion to sev- 
eral Catholics. He was still rapt in prayer, when the guards 
entered his cell and told him that his hour had come. 
Recommending himself to the Most High, he arose and fol- 
lowed them to the street. Without delay, they fastened him 
to the hurdle and then whipping up the four horses dashed 
off to Tyburn followed by a concourse of people. 

Arriving at the place of execution, the holy man was 
transported with joy. 

"Now I find myself in the place," he exclaimed, "which 
blessed Thomas Bullaker predicted to me ! " 

At the command of the sheriff, he ascended the cart and, 



308 FRANCISCANS AND 

as was customary, addressed the people who had assembled 
in great numbers to witness the bloody spectacle. 

''Listen, my dearest countrj^men! If you wish to be 
freed of your miseries, it is necessary that you first put an 
end to your sins. For, without doubt, your great sins are 
the cause of your present calamities and misfortunes. Above 
all, however, arise from heresy in which you are engrossed 
these many years. For through heresy, I grieve to say, you 
are separated like decayed members from the body of Christ, 
or are cut like dead branches from the tree of the Church. 
If you continue to love the darkness more than the light, 
daily hardships will be your share. Certain it is, many 
tribulations and calamities will come upon this city of Lon- 
don and upon the entire kingdom of England, if they do not 
betimes leave off persecuting and harassing the priests and 
the Catholic people. Consider, I beseech you, and see the 
afflictions with which God even now visibly begins to punish 
you, and know for certain that all these punishments are signs 
of his love and the most evident assurance that he will not 
destroy you unless forced to do so. All these chastisements, 
wars, and misfortunes he inflicts upon you, so as in time to 
gather in the shipwrecked into the harbor of the Catholic 
Church. Do not, therefore, shamefully abuse his goodness 
and mercy ; do not with violence, as it were, extort your per- 
dition by provoking divine justice.^® I am brought here to 
suffer death, but I wish before I suffer to tell you the cause. 
I am not even accused of any crime, but am condemned solely 
for being a priest of the Catholic Church. Were I a pagan 
priest, I should not wonder at being put to death in a Chris- 
tian country; but that a Catholic priest should be put to 
death by those who profess to be Christians and to follow 
Jesus Christ and *his Gospel, ought to surprise every rea- 
sonable person. It is said that the laws demand it. But 
these laws were iniquitously made and now they are being 
iniquitously executed. I declare before you all in the sight 

16. So far Mason ; the rest of the address and attending incidents are 
taken from Hope, pp. 212 seq. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 309 

of God and of his Son Jesus Christ who will judge us, and I 
sign my declaration with my blood, that I die a true member 
of the Catholic Church." 

''You mean to say the Roman Church," interrupted a 
Protestant. 

"If you wish me thus to distinguish it," replied the 
martyr, "with all my heart I distinguish it from every 
Protestant Church and every sort of heresy, and call it 
the Roman Church. My parents lived and died in 
this religion. They brought me up in this faith, and if I 
had a longer life to spend I would profess it to my last 
moment, even though I had to suffer a thousand deaths and 
the greatest imaginable torments. ' ' 

"Mr. Bel," broke in the sheriff, "we can not let you de- 
claim any longer against our laws and give a wrong impres- 
sion to the people. You know that you are going to die for 
having seduced the king's subjects." 

* ' I see, ' ' answered the martyr, ' ' a great multitude before 
me. This is why I wish to do them a good office and draw 
them back to the right w^ay. They possess a part of the 
Catholic faith. They believe the incarnation of our Lord, 
his passion, and his resurrection. But this is not enough, 
and therefore I wish to declare to them the whole truth for 
the good of their souls. ' ' 

"Help yourself! help yourself!" shouted some in the 
crowd. 

' ' Those that are the victims of a false religion, ' ' the man 
of God quietly continued, ' ' will not listen to the truth. But 
I protest to you that the Protestant religion is not of divine 
faith." 

Here the sheriff interposed, forbidding the martyr to say 
any more against the Protestant religion. Whereupon, the 
latter with a look of sorrow and pity exclaimed : 

* ' I forgive with my whole heart all who have contributed 
to my death, and I die joyfully for so glorious a cause. ' ' 

A thief who also was to be executed felt such compunc- 
tion at these words that he solemnly abjured the Anglican 



310 FRANCISCANS AND 

heresy and was absolved by the martyr. Finally, orders 
were given to carry out the sentence. While the cart was 
drawn from under him, the martyr raised his hands and 
received the last absolution from the prior of St. Magdalen. 
He had hung only a few seconds when the executioner cut 
him down. On removing his secular dress, they found that 
beneath it he wore the Franciscan habit and cord. At this 
sight the crowd was filled with admiration. 

''What sort of men are these," they murmured, "who 
thus despise earthly comforts ? ' ' 

Having finished their bloody work on the sacred corpse, 
the executioners exposed the quarters on the four gates of 
the city. Mason concludes his life sketch of Ven. Francis 
Bel by remarking that several miracles were thought to have 
been wrought through his intercession. Like his fellow 
friars who died for their faith and profession at this time, 
he, too, is now on the official list for eventual beatification.^^ 

17. See Acta Minorum, Vol. VI (1887), p. 49 seq., and also Ortolani, 
De Causis Beatorum et Servorum Dei Ordinis Minorum, p. 14- 



CHAPTER VII 

VENERABLE MARTIN WOODCOCK, 0. F. M. 

His Protestant father and Catholic mother — He embraces 
the old faith — Student at Saint-Omer and at Rome — 
Joins the Capuchins in Paris — Dismissed from the Order 
— Serious doubts regarding his vocation — Received into 
the Franciscan Order at Douai — Ordained priest — Longs 
to joint the piissionaries in England — Permission at last 
granted — Arrested on arriving in England — Sufferings 
in prison — Before the judges — Sentenced to death for 
being a priest — Martyrdom. 

The last Franciscan to die for the faith during the Puri- 
tan Revolution was Venerable Martin Woodcock.^ Before, 
as well as after, his entrance into the Franciscan Order, his 
life was one long series of mental and bodily affliction, which 
he bore with heroic resignation to the will of Him whose 
judgments are incomprehensible and whose ways are un- 
searchable. ' ' In the eyes of the world, ' ' Hope thoughtfully 
observes, ''his life was a failure, for disappointment seemed 
ever to attend all his efforts in God's service. But in God's 
eyes his constant humiliations were the fitting preparation 
for the glorious crown which was predestined to him rather 
than to those of his brethren who might be deemed to have 
more worthily deserved it. ' '^ 

Fr. Woodcock was a native of Lancashire. He saw the 
light of day in 1603 at Leyland, and in baptism received the 
name John. His father, Thomas Woodcock, was a Protes- 
tant, while his mother Dorothy, born of a good Catholic 
family named Anderton, was known for her piety and 

1. For the present sketch, unless otherwise stated, we have drawn 
chiefly from Mason, Certamen Seraphicum, pp. 183-208. 

2, Hope, Franciscan Martyrs in England, p. 216. 

311 



312 



FRANCISCANS AND 




Venerable Martin Woodcock, 0. F, M. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 313 

staunch adherence to the old faith. Unfortunately, all we 
know regarding John 's boyhood and youth is the fact that, 
possibly to wrest her son from the influence of Protestant 
environment at home, his mother entrusted him at an early 
age to the care of his grandfather. With him he stayed till 
his twentieth year, when he abjured Protestantism and em- 
braced the Catholic faith. In consequence, as he had fore- 
seen, his Protestant father treated him very cruelly. But he 
esteemed the treasure of his faith higher than earthly com- 
forts. Patiently he bore his father's taunts for almost two 
years. Then having come of age, he made shift to follow 
what he sincerely believed to be a summons from above to 
the holy priesthood. With a number of young men he ac- 
companied F. Edward Squire, S. J., to the continent and 
soon found himself within the halls of the Jesuit College at 
Saint-Omer. After a year of study, during which he com- 
pleted his classical training, he departed for the English 
College in Rome, where he intended to take up philosophy 
and theology.^ 

All this time, the young convert felt in his heart an 
earnest desire to enter some religious Order. Finally, after 
six months of prayer and deliberation, he decided to join 
the Capuchins. The procurator general of the Order, to 
whom he had gone for advice, mistook the Capuchins at Fau- 
bourg St. Jacques in Paris for an English community. Ac- 
cordingly, he told John to enter the Order there. The 
young man immediately set out for the French metropolis, 
and on May 16, 1630, received the Capuchin habit. Soon, 
however, a storm of bitter trials was to dispel the joy and 
peace of his heart. He had been with the Capuchins only 
three months, when the superiors found it necessary to 
dismiss him from the Order. The novice was inconsolable 
when he heard of it. So ardent was his devotion to the life 
he had embraced that only by sheer force, as Mason tells us, 
could he be deprived of the lowly garb of St. Francis. 

In a letter to a friend, the unhappy young man explained 

3. stone, Faithful Unto Death, p. 212. 



314 FRANCISCANS AND 

the reasons why the friars had sent him away.* His friends 
in England, and even his Catholic mother, had neglected to 
answer the letters which had been directed to them for in- 
formation regarding his antecedents. Furthermore, his 
superiors could not discover what had prevailed on him to 
join their Order in Paris rather than in Rome; it seemed 
incredible to them that the procurator general should have 
mistaken their friary for a community of English Capu- 
chins. Moreover, from letters received through the Jesuits 
in Rome, they learned that the novice's mother, elder 
brother, and other relatives strongly discountenanced his 
entering a religious Order, which fact the superiors antici- 
pated would in the end create difficulties for him as well as 
for the Order. Again, not only was the young man of 
Protestant extraction, but he had also been reared among 
Protestants. Then, his precarious health evidently mili- 
tated against vowing a life of seclusion and penance. 
Finally, there was little hope of his ever becoming con- 
versant with the French tongue, while the decided predilec- 
tion he manifested for the English Jesuits who had lately 
visited him caused considerable comment. Therefore, 
'^ without any fault of his own," as Mason concludes, John 
Woodcock was compelled to leave the Order. ' ' God made use 
of the injustice of men," Stone remarks, "to work out his 
own design, for if Father Woodcock had remained with the 
Capuchins, he could never have attained the martyr's crown, 
they having at that time no mission in England, so that what 
was to him a source of grief and suffering at first, was ulti- 
mately the very means by which he was to ensure his happi- 
ness and reward."^ 

With a heavy heart, the young man left the quiet pre- 
cincts of the convent where he had only begun to taste of 
the peace and consolation for which his spirit longed. 
Trusting in God for strength and guidance, he proceeded at 
once to Douai and applied for admission among the English 

4. Mason brings a Latin version of this letter, which at Ms time was 
preserved in the provincial archives at Douai. 

5. Stone, p. 214. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 315 

Franciscans. At the same time, however, serious doubts 
regarding his true vocation began to harrow his soul. 
Would not his father's being a Protestant debar him also 
from becoming a Franciscan ? Had he not better complete 
his studies, receive ordination, and secure a living ? What 
if the Franciscans at St. Bonaventure 's also turned him off ? 
How, in that event, could he earn a livelihood, deprived as 
he was of his inheritance ? While pondering what course to 
pursue, it suddenly occurred to him how, when he left Rome 
for Paris, Fr. Luke Wadding,® the guardian of St. Isidore 's, 
had drawn his attention to all these predicaments and had 
promised to receive him into the Irish College of Francis- 
cans. It was at this juncture that the troubled student made 
the mistake of his life, as he himself later confessed. With 
more zeal than forethought, he withdrew his application to 
the friars at Douai and returned to Rome. But the end of 
his trials had not yet come. For some reason or other, he 
was not admitted among the Irish Franciscans, and again 
his heart became a prey to doubts and fears. To join the 
Order of St. Francis was his one and only desire. With 
deep regret he thought of the friars at Douai. Had he only 
joined them instead of applying to their Irish brethren in 
Rome. To be received into their midst now was more than 
he could reasonably hope or ask for. ''Thus," as Mason 
says, ''he was tossed about on all sides and found rest no- 
where, until, after escaping from many dangers, and over- 
coming many difficulties, he fell back upon his original de- 
sign, and returned to the place which in the first instance 
had been designated for him by God. ' '' 

A natural sense of shame forbade him to appear person- 
ally at the convent of St. Bonaventure, and he solicited by 
letter® the aid of his friend Fr. William Anderton,® who was 
then a member of the community. This letter breathes a 

6. The famous historian of the Franciscan Order, 

7. Mason, p. 197. 

8. For a Latin version of this letter see Mason, p. 197. 

9. Perhaps Fr. Martin was related to him ; his mother's name, we 
know, was Anderton. 



316 FRANCISCANS AND 

spirit of rare humility, winning sincerity, deep faith, and 
religious fervor. In it he begs his friend to plead his cause 
with the superiors of the province, to declare in his stead 
that ' ' through some weakness of body and soul, and through 
a fear not altogether reprehensible, ' ' he had justly incurred 
their distrust and displeasure; that now, however, having 
regained his mental and bodily strength, he was better dis- 
posed and earnestly desired ''to heed his first call rather 
than to expose himself any longer to the surging billows of 
this world and to the furious onslaughts of implacable ene- 
mies ; wherefore, my dear Father William, ' ' he pleaded, ' 'by 
our old friendship which in this misfortune above all inter- 
cedes for me with you ; yes, by the tender love of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, I pray that pity on my miserable condition 
may move you successfully to endeavor to obtain favor and 
pardon for me. This is my desire, this I ask, this I wait for, 
for this I sigh and yearn, and I shall await its accomplish- 
ment solely out of pure love of God and of his glory. Fare- 
well. That which formerly you saw me long for lightly, 
you will strive now, for love of Christ, to secure for me more 
efficaciously. This will be my happiness ; nothing else will 
ever cause me greater joy. Farewell." 

The superiors at St. Bonaventure 's were deeply touched 
when they read this humble and sincere appeal. Evidently, 
it was the outburst of a soul that the All- Wise was leading 
heavenward through the perilous gloom of sorrow and afflic- 
tion ; and in their little community, perhaps, that tried soul 
was predestined at last to find spiritual peace and consola- 
tion. Thus the friars reasoned, and eager to further the 
designs of Providence, they informed the young man that he 
might come and join their ranks. Without delay, John 
Woodcock repaired to St. Bonaventure 's, where Venerable 
Paul Heath, who at the time was vicar of the friary, vested 
him with the Franciscan habit and gave him the name Fr. 
Martin of St. Felix. 

Humility had opened for him the portals of the friary ; 
and it was this same virtue that chiefly characterized his 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 317 

later career. Fr. Martin soon won the esteem and confi- 
dence of his superiors by his love of prayer and recollection 
and by the spirit of ready submission which he manifested 
on all occasions. Though of a weak constitution, he ate very 
sparingly and shortened his hours of sleep to satisfy his 
thirst for prayer. In the discharge of choir duty, he edified 
all by his promptness and devotion. Mason, who had occa- 
sion to observe him during the novitiate, assures us that Fr. 
Martin outstripped all his fellow novices in strict observance 
of the Rule and of other, even the slightest, disciplinary reg- 
ulations. In short, so fully did he vindicate the hopes of his 
superiors and confreres, that after the year of probation he 
was admitted by unanimous consent to holy profession. He 
pronounced the vows in the hands of the guardian Venerable 
Francis Bel. Thus, by a singular coincidence Fr. Martin 
of St. Felix was vested and professed by two Franciscans 
who, like himself, were destined one day to shed their blood 
in defence of their holy faith and profession. 

About two years after his profession, Fr. Martin was 
ordained priest, although he had not yet finished the usual 
course of studies. His health was very much impaired, and 
it was probablj^ this circumstance together with his age, — 
he was now past thirty — that induced the provincial to have 
him receive ordination. Apparently, for the next three 
years, till 1637, he continued to study theology. "Where- 
upon he was empowered to hear confessions and to preach 
and was approved for the mission in England. His first 
appointment was to Nieuport as confessor and spiritual 
adviser of the Franciscan Sisters residing in that place.^*^ 
In 1640, the provincial chapter, which was held in London 
on April 19, appointed him chaplain and confessor to a cer- 
tain Mr. Sheldon at Arras. But he lived with this gentle- 
man only a short time, when his health broke down com- 
pletely, owing to the austere life he had been leading and 
to the disinterested zeal with which he had discharged his 
priestly duties. The physicians declared his ailment very 

10. Hope, p. 218. 



318 FRANCISCANS AND 

serious; wherefore, the superiors recalled him to Douai. 
Resigning himself entirely to the will of God, the saintly 
priest returned to St. Bonaventure 's and, despite his physi- 
cal debility, again took part in all the penitential exercises 
of the community. 

Since his elevation to the priesthood, and especially since 
the renewal of anti-Catholic hostilitj^ in England, Fr. Martin 
had hoped and prayed for the day when he should be allowed 
to join his brethren on the missions. But his health had 
grown from bad to worse, so that he finally despaired of ever 
obtaining the necessary permission. Mingled feelings of joy 
and sorrow prevailed in the community at Douai when in 
the spring of 1643 the friars were informed that Venerable 
Paul Heath had won the martyr 's crown. On Trinity Sun- 
day they held a solemn service of thanksgiving. No one 
was more impressed by the sermon which a Capuchin 
preached on the occasion than Fr. Martin. To lay down his 
life for Christ again became the ever recurring burden of his 
thoughts and prayers. Several times he wrote to the pro- 
vincial in England, Fr. George Perrot, asking leave to come 
to the missions. But for some reason or other his letters 
remained unanswered. 

Meanwhile, the state of his health had become so alarm- 
ing that the superiors ordered him to take the waters at Spa. 
It was here that he met Fr. Peter Marchant, the Belgian 
commissary general. With childlike confidence he told him 
how, ever since the glorious death of Fr. Heath, he had been 
yearning to join the missions. The commissary in turn bade 
him apply to his immediate superior, promising at the same 
time to use his influence in securing the necessary permis- 
sion. Accordingly, the servant of God addressed the follow- 
ing letter^^ to Fr. Angelus Mason, the provincial commis- 
sary: 

Reverend Father : 

Since Trinity Sunday, which I doubt not your Reverence remem- 
bers, and previously, I have written three consecutive letters to out 

11. For a copy of this letter see Mason, p. 201. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 319 

Eeverend Father Provincial in England, asking for permission to 
return thither, etc. Recently, I also wrote to the commissary general. 
But now after speaking to him personally, I have obtained in writing 
his free consent to my desire, provided it meets your approval, as he 
pointed out to me. He affixed his seal to it and returned it to me 
open, that I might read and sign it when I saw fit. This I did on my 
arrival here yesterday evening. After due consideration, however, I 
I refrain from sending it to you, for fear it may be lost on the way, 
which would necessitate my beginning the whole matter anew. Trust- 
ing you will take me at my word, especially in an affair of this kind, in 
which I could not lie, I judged it better to inform you of it by these 
simple lines and to request your consent with return mail. By the 
tender love of the most sweet Jesus, I entreat you not to delay sending 
it. Indeed, I might propose to your Reverence the same urgent rea- 
sons which I have twice already laid before the above-mentioned supe- 
riors, though perhaps in a style little adequate to the subject. But I 
hope that this will not be necessary. Your Reverence knows me better 
than they do; nor have I less confidence in you than in them. Still, 
rather than fail in my cherished purpose, I assure you that, if it be 
your wish to try me, I am willing to rehearse the same reasons to 
your Reverence which I unfolded to them, though I by no means en- 
treated them with importunity, but with modesty and with unpersua- 
sive reasoning. Reverend Father, the season admits of no delay; 
winter is at the door and my health in consequence of this and other 
greater anxieties is not as robust as your Reverence and I myself might 
expect. Therefore, for the love of God, kneeling now in my room, 
I pray you to say Amen, and to send me your approval as soon as 
possible. What I have for its security I will send to you whenever 
and wherever you desire. Meanwhile, offering you my humble, sub- 
missive, and unfeigned love and service, I remain with confidence in 
you, ever yours. Friar Martin of St. Felix. 

Great was the joy of the holy man when some time later 
the commissary general notified him that Fr. Angelus Mason 
had given his consent. The happy news seemed to restore 
the health of his body as it soothed the anguish of his soul. 
Without delay, he returned to St. Bonaventure 's. On arriv- 
ing there he learned that a short time before another of his 
confreres. Venerable Francis Bel, had suffered martyrdom 
for the faith. Now nothing could longer detain him. He 
hastened his preparation and before the end of the year 
departed for England, fortified with the blessing of the 



320 FRANCISCANS AND 

guardian. After a perilous voyage, he landed at Newcastle- 
on Tyne, and immediately set out for Lancashire, hoping to 
find his relatives and to convert them to the true faith. But 
God had decreed otherwise. On the very night of his 
arrival, he was arrested on the suspicion of being a priest 
and brought before the magistrate, who without much ado 
had him thrown into the city jail. 

Owing to the Civil War, which was then at its height, the 
circuit judges were prevented from holding regular sessions. 
Hence, for more than two years, Fr. Martin was left to 
languish in prison. During this time, he endured untold 
hardships. The prison was rank with filth and disease. 
The rations that the jailer or some Catholic friend brought 
to him, were coarse and hardly sufficient to sustain him. 
Many of his fellow prisoners were criminals of the lowest 
type ; and the shameless and wicked conversation they car- 
ried on only added to the misery and distress of the saintly 
friar. But he bore all with heroic patience and divided his 
time between prayer and works of charity. From time to 
time, Catholics would venture into the prison to be in- 
structed by him or to receive the sacraments at his hands. 
They were greatly edified and encouraged by the self-for- 
getting zeal with which he ministered to their spiritual 
needs. Even the Protestants were at a loss to explain how 
a man of his physical debility could survive and even be 
happy amid such privations. What sustained the servant 
of God, however, was the assurance that his cause was 
righteous, and that in the end God would reward him with 
the crown of martyrdom. How earnestly he yearned for 
this singular grace we learn from a letter of Fr. William 
Anderton, the same through whose intervention he had been 
admitted into the Franciscan Order. Fr. William was then 
engaged on the missions and succeeded in visiting his im- 
prisoned confrere. "During the entire period of his con- 
finement," he wrote, "he manifested a great desire for 
martyrdom, and always declared that, drawn especially by 
this hope, he had crossed over to England." 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 321 

At length the long looked-for moment arrived. The 
crushing defeat which Cromwell 's Ironsides inflicted on the 
king's forces at Naseby had decided the war in favor of 
the parliamentarians. Hence, the Puritans had free scope 
to satisfy their vengeance on the Catholics. The judges soon 
after resumed their regular circuits and early in August, 
1646, came to Lancaster. Among the first to be summoned 
before them was Fr. Martin. On being asked whether he 
was a priest, the friar fearlessly replied in the affirmative 
and also admitted that he was a Franciscan. More was not 
needed, and without further questioning the judges con- 
demned him to suffer the death of a traitor. On hearing his 
sentence, Fr. Martin raised his eyes to heaven and with a 
loud voice exclaimed, ''Praise be to God! Thanks be to 
God ! ' ' Meanwhile, the guards approached and conducted 
him back to prison. 

Owing probably to the fact that the prisons were over- 
crowded, the execution of Fr. Martin and of the two secular 
priests who had been condemned with him, was fixed for the 
following morning. At daybreak, therefore, on August 7, 
the three priests were taken from their dungeon and led out 
into the streets. Here they were fastened to hurdles and 
amid the taunts and jeers of a blood-thirsty rabble hurried 
off to the place of execution. The humility and patience 
with which the friar bore these insults elicited the secret 
sympathy of many, so that even Protestants were heard to 
remark, ''If ever there was a true martyr in the Roman 
Church, this is one. ' ' 

The first to mount the ladder that rested against the 
scaffold was Fr. Martin. "When the executioner had placed 
the rope about his neck, the martyr addressed the people. 
Having told them that he was about to suffer death solely 
for being a Roman Catholic priest, he began to discourse on 
the only true and saving faith. Suddenly, however, at a 
signal from the sheriff, the executioner overturned the lad- 
der. It is related that the rope broke and that the martyr 
fell unconscious to the ground. But he soon came to and 



322 FRANCISCANS AND 

rose to his feet. At the command of the sheriff he reas- 
cended the ladder, and patiently suffered the executioner to 
readjust the rope. Then with a sudden jerk the ladder was 
again thrust aside, and the friar hung suspended between 
heaven and earth. Immediately he was cut down and the 
bloody work began.^^ ^hen the executioner seized his heart, 
the martyr was heard to invoke the name of Jesus. "He 
praised God in life," Mason concludes, *'he called upon God 
in death, and after death he enjoys God in everlasting hap- 
piness. ' '^^ 

12. The head of the martyr, we learn from Hope (p. 228), was pre- 
served in the Francsican friary at Douai till the French Revolution, when 
the friars were compelled to seek refuge in England. The Franciscan. Sis- 
ters at Taunton possess one of his arm-bones. 

13. Mason, p. 208. Fr. Mason is the last of this period whose cause 
of beatification was introduced on December 4, 1886, and was advanced a 
step farther in 1900. See Acta Minorum, Vol. VI, pp. 49 seq., and Ortolani, 
De Causia Beatorum et Servorum Dei Ordinis Minorum, p. 14. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CONCLUSION 

Franciscans m prison during the Commonwealth — Early 
reign of Charles II — Peace and prosperity — Death of 
Fr. John Gennings — Activity and influence of the friars 
— The Maryland Mission — Franciscans and the Titus 
Oates Plot — Two martyrs: Yen. John Wall and Yen. 
Charles Mahoney — Four die in prison — Ominous signs — 
— Fall of King James II — Franciscans forced to flee 
from the continent — Many of their number seized and 
imprisoned — Peace restored — The province at the height 
of prosperity — Two Franciscans die in prison: FF. Paul 
Atkinson and Germanus Holmes — Decline of the prov- 
ince — Subversive State laws — The French Revolution — 
Franciscans flee to England — Their number gradually 
decreases — The province canonically dissolved. 

The reader may wish to know how the English Francis- 
cans fared after the execution of Charles I and the ultimate 
triumph of Puritanism. We will conclude our narrative, 
therefore, with a brief account of the Second Province dur- 
ing the remaining two centuries of its existence.^ Naturally, 
the eleven years that Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans 
were in power proved another period of sufferings for Cath- 
olics. Among the many priests who languished in the 
prisons at this time we find a number of Franciscans. Under 
the year 1653, the chapter register has the following entry : 
' * Three fathers have suffered imprisonment, and have with 
danger of their lives undergone their trial, showing great 
constancy." Another entry was made three years later, 

1. The following facts and figures are compiled chiefly from Thad- 
deus, The Franciscans in England. 

323 



324 FRANCISCANS AND 

reading : ' * Since the last chapter three fathers have suffered 
imprisonment." One of these, it seems, was Fr. Lewis 
Wrest. After a long confinement in Lancaster Castle, he at 
last obtained his freedom and returned to Douai, where he 
died in 1669, aged 73 years. Whether the other friars were 
also set at liberty or were left to die a lingering death in 
prison, is not known. 

The Catholics looked forward to brighter days when the 
royalist party at last gained the upper hand and, in 1660, 
placed Charles II on his rightful throne. The popularity 
which the Franciscans enjoyed at this time and later, is best 
seen from the many bequests made to them, and from the 
fact that so many young men applied for admission into 
their ranks. Since 1649, not less than 175 new members 
were added to the province, so that by the end of the century 
the total number of friars (living and deceased) amounted 
to 228, of whom 89 were still living in 1700. Their zeal for 
the strict observance of the Franciscan vow of poverty was 
truly remarkable. In 1676, the superiors of the province 
drew up a solemn declaration, in which, among other things, 
they protested: ''We repudiate all property in common as 
well as in private, admitting only the use of what is neces- 
sary, given us either as a free gift or alms or as retribution 
for our labors : not as if we had a strict right to those things, 
but being content with their simple use. ' ' The instructions 
with which the provincial in 1704 sent Fr. John Capistran 
Eyston to England, show what spirit guided the friars on 
the mission. "Be courteous, civil, and obliging to all," he 
tells the young priest, "familiar with few, and with none 
of the other sex. Compassionate the poor, helping them 
when you can. Be tender and careful of the sick. . . . 
Omit not daily mental prayer, nor an annual recollection. 
. . . Let not your manners contradict your doctrine, nor 
life and actions belie your words. Be zealous for the con- 
version of souls, but temper zeal with prudence and dis- 
cretion. Meddle as little as may be with the temporal con- 
cerns of your flock, or economy of families ; and be not for- 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 325 

ward in recommending servants or making matches. Re- 
member, perfect expropriation is our great treasure, which 
we must endeavor to preserve by renouncing all dominion : 
in the case of money we ought to be very moderate ; and in 
all matters of moment have recourse, if possible, to the 
Superiors. ' ' 

About six months after the accession of Charles II, the 
friars on the mission received the sad news that the founder 
of their province, Fr. John Gennings, had passed away. 
After the first provincial chapter in 1630, he at once re- 
turned to England and continued to labor there as mis- 
sionary till 1659. In that year, he attended as commissary 
provincial the chapter held in London. Being now over 
ninety years of age, and wishing to prepare for his last hour, 
he asked and obtained leave to return to the friary at Douai. 
Here, on November 12, 1660, he passed quietly to a better 
life. He had served three terms as provincial and had re- 
peatedly held the offices of custos and definitor. In 1651, he 
published his Institutio Missionarioriim, in which he be- 
queathed to his brethren the fruits of his long experience as 
missionary in England. The records describe him as **a 
man of exemplary and blameless life, steadfast in his pur- 
pose, and beloved by all. ' ' 

Of the Franciscans conspicuous for their activity and 
influence we mention only a few. Fr. Francis Davenport, 
whom, before the outbreak of the Civil War, parliament had 
designated as greatly responsible for the increase of popery, 
was still exerting a wide influence, especially at court. In 
1670, he effected the conversion of Anne, the Duchess of 
York ; and it was, without doubt, largely owing to him, as 
one of Queen Catherine 's chaplains, that Charles II was at 
heart so favorably disposed toward Catholics. Fr. Francis 
died in 1680 ; he had spent fifty-seven years on the missions 
and had held the highest offices in the province. Another 
learned and influential Franciscan at this time was Fr. John 
Baptist Canes. Among his writings we note especially Fiat 
lux, a controversial work on the religious troubles then agi- 



326 FRANCISCANS AND 

tating England. Selected by the Catholic party to defend 
the faith against Dr. Stillingfleet, the learned friar wrote 
and published his Diaphanta or Exposure of Dr. Stilling- 
fieet's Arguments against the Catholic Religion. Other dis- 
tinguished writers on historical, ascetical, and dogmatical 
subjects, were Fr. Angelus Mason, who is known especially 
for his valuable Certamen Seraphicum, the work which 
formed our chief source of information regarding the five 
Franciscans who suffered during the Civil War; Fr. John 
Cross, who wrote on ascetics and Scotistic philosophy ; and 
Fr. Antony Le Grand, who is recognized as ''the first 
philosopher of the age that reduced the Cartesian system 
to the method of the schools." 

But the second province did not restrict its activity to 
England. In 1672, the chapter answered the appeal of the 
Jesuits, who were then serving the English Catholics in 
the Maryland colony, by sending FF. Polycarp Wicksted 
and Basil Hobart to their assistance. Three more friars 
joined the American mission in 1675. They labored here 
with the sons of St. Ignatius in ' ' fraternal charity and offices 
of mutual friendship," as the Jesuit Records put it, until 
the year 1589, when the English crown passed over to 
the Prince of Orange, and the prosperity of the Maryland 
mission came to an end. Lord Baltimore was deposed as 
governor of the colony, and in 1792 Protestantism was estab- 
lished there by law. But the Catholic missionaries did not 
forsake their flock. In fact, as late as 1699, two Franciscans 
again set out for the English colony. One of these, Fr. 
James Haddock, was active there till his death which oc- 
curred in 1720. 

During the religious persecution that broke out in 1678, 
in consequence of the Titus Oates Plot, two Franciscans died 
on the scaffold for their faith and sacred profession, while 
four underwent the hardships of prison life. Venerable 
John Wall, known in religion as Joachim of St. Anne, was 
laboring successfully in Worcestershire when, in December, 
1678, he was arrested at Rushock Court. On his refusal to 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 327 

take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, he was cast into 
the jail at Worcester. Here he languished till the follow- 
ing April, when he was brought to trial and condemned to 
death. Four months elapsed, however, before orders were 
given for his execution. The people of Worcester were op- 
posed to it, maintaining that till then no one had been exe- 
cuted in their city solely for being a priest. Like so many 
others, Fr. John was, therefore, taken to London, in order 
that the more serious charge of complicity in the supposed 
plot against the king's life might be proved against him. 
How little his enemies succeeded in their base design, we 
learn from a letter which the friar wrote to a friend of his, 
on July 18, shortly after his return from London.^ 

Sir: — With my service I return you thanks for the twenty shil- 
lings. I am safe returned from London, whither I was sent to be 
examined by Mr. Gates and Bedloe, Dugdale and Prance, to see if 
any of them had anything against me, as guilty of concerning these 
great disturbances of the times. I was very strictly examined by all 
four, several times over, in that month I stayed in London; and thanks 
be to God I was after the last examination, publicly declared innocent 
and free of all plots whatever by Mr. Bedloe, who examined me last; 
and he was so kind to me, that he told me publicly that if I would 
but comply in matter of religion, that he would pawn his life for me 
that for all I was condemned yet I should not die. I was also offered 
the same after my first examination, though I should have been never 
so guilty if I would have done what was against my conscience. But 
I told them I would not buy my life at so dear a rate as to wrong my 
conscience. How Gcd will dispose of all of us that are condemned 
none know. Some think it is concluded we all must die; and yet, 
because it will not appear grateful in the eyes of rational and moral 
men to see us die merely for conscience' sake, I have been several times 
informed from London, since I came down, that if possible some will 
do their best to bring some of us, some way or other, into a plot, though 
we have all at London been declared innocent after strict examination. 
God's will be done! The greater the injury and injustice done against 
U3 by men to take away our lives, the greater our glory in eternal 
life before God. This is the last persecution that will be in England ; 
therefore I hope God will give all His holy grace to make the best 
use of it. All these things have been sufficiently prophesied long 

2. This letter and other details regardinj; Venerable John Wall are 
taken from Hcpe, Franciscan Martyrs in England, pp. 2s6 seq. 



328 FRANCISCANS AND 

since; and I do no way question the truth, though it is like some will 
suffer first, of whom I have a strong imagination I shall be one. 
God's will be done in earth as it is in heaven, and in mercy bring 
me happy thither! 

I subscribe, sir, your faithful servant, 

Francis Webb.3 

The holy man's presentiment that he would be among 
the first of the condemned priests to die for the faith proved 
correct. Feelings of joy and gratitude thrilled his noble 
soul when he learned that his execution would take place 
on August 22. Prayer and acts of penance filled out the 
remaining days of his life. Shortly before his martyrdom 
he received the sacraments at the hands of a priest who ob- 
tained permission to visit him in prison. On the appointed 
morning, he was drawn on a hurdle to Red Hill, near Wor- 
cester, and martyred in the usual bloody manner. His 
mangled remains were laid to rest in the Catholic church- 
yard of St. Oswald, while his head was given to Fr. Leo 
Randolph, who had it conveyed to the brethren at Douai. 

Ten days before, another Franciscan suffered death for 
the same cause in another part of England. It was Vener- 
able Charles Mahony, a member of the Irish Province. Ap- 
parently, he had been ordained priest only a short time 
before, and was on his way to Ireland, when the ship on 
which he sailed stranded on the coast of Wales. While he 
was traveling through this region, government spies de- 
tected his priestly character and arrested him. At his trial, 
which took place at Denbigh, Fr. Charles openly confessed 
that he was a priest. Accordingly, he was condemned to 
death and sent to Ruthin, where on August 12, 1679, he 
obtained the crown of martyrdom. 

Of the four Franciscans who w^ere thrown into prison 
during this persecution only one, Venerable Francis Levi- 
son, is known to have at last succumbed to his sufferings. 
He died in prison on February 11, 1680, after fourteen 

3. He went by the assumed names Francis Webb and Francis John- 
son. Dodd in his Church History of England (Vol. Ill, p. 400) mentions 
him by the latter name. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 329 

months of close confinement. Fr. Marian Napier was tried 
and sentenced to death ; but, in 1684, the sentence was com- 
muted to banishment for life.* The other two Franciscans, 
FF. Bernardine Langworth and Francis Osbaldeston, after 
languishing in prison for six years, were set at liberty when 
James II ascended the throne.^ 

Despite these persecutions, the number of Franciscans 
in England increased from year to year, so that the sphere 
of their, activity assumed broader dimensions. In 1687, nine 
new residences were established in different parts of the 
country. That same year, in November, it was decided that 
a friary should be erected next their chapel at Lincoln's 
Inn Field, in London. Work on the new building pro- 
gressed rapidly, and the following spring ten friars were 
assembled there, wearing the religious garb and performing 
all the exercises of a well-regulated community. Soon after, 
the novices were placed there, and nine new members were 
added to the community. But the friars were to enjoy their 
peace and happiness only a few weeks. On Sunday, Novem- 
ber 4, 1688, the very day on which William of Orange, 
landed with his army at Torbay, on the coast of Devonshire, 
a mob attacked the friary and would have destroyed it and 
expelled its inmates had not the king sent a body of armed 
soldiers to disband the mob. Meanwhile, the Prince of 
Orange had marched northward, so that the king was com- 
pelled to leave London and rally his forces at Salisbury. 
Anxious for the safety of the Franciscans, he requested 
them to quit their friary for the present. 

The fall of James II and the accession of William of 
Orange, a staunch adherent of Calvinism, spelled hard times 
for the Catholics in England. Together with their Belgian 
confreres, many of the Franciscans took refuge on the con- 
tinent. ''So great," writes Thaddeus, "was the rush to 

4. On Dodd's list (ibidem, Vol. Ill, p. 400) he appears under the 
assumed name William Russel. 

5. FF. Charles Parry and Gregory Jones also are commemorated as 
having suffered imprisonment at this time for their priesthood ; the former 
by Dodd (ibidem, Vol. Ill, p. 400), the latter by Hope (ibidem, p. 243) on 
the authority ofv.Oliver. The matter is not mentioned by Thaddeus. 



330 FRANCISCANS AND 

Douai, that there was not room enough for all the fathers 
who continued to arrive, and the clerics had to be sent out 
to different houses of the Order in Belgium." Others, how- 
ever, defying all danger, remained on the missions and 
continued to minister to their persecuted countrymen. Of 
these, six are known to have been seized and imprisoned. 
Fr. Gervase Cartwright, after being condemned to death 
and languishing in the jail at Leicester for twenty-eight 
months, was at last banished by the Prince of Orange. FF. 
Francis Hardwick and William Lockier were thrown into 
Newgate in the beginning of the revolution ; they were still 
there in September, 1689, when the chapter appointed the 
former titular guardian of Canterbury and summoned the 
latter to Douai, where he was master of novices in 1691. 
FF. Daniel Selby and Lewis Grimbalson were confined for 
several months in York Castle and Fr. Bernardine Barras 
in the dungeon of Kidcote prison. 

With the return of more peaceful times, many of the 
Franciscans went back to England and resumed their mis- 
sionary labors. During the first half of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, the province prospered as perhaps never before or 
after. In 1756, it counted about 100 members, of whom, in 
1758, at least 40 were active in England. Accordingly, 
many new missions could be taken over, to the great joy of 
the people who welcomed the friars with open arms and by 
generous benefactions sought to relieve their temporal 
needs. Thus the Franciscans were enabled to rebuild some 
of their friaries, notably those at White Hill and York. In 
the latter place and at Edgbaston they conducted a school 
for boys ; while the one at Osmotherley was soon restored to 
its former flourishing condition. 

Among the writers of this period we mention in particu- 
lar FF. Antony Parkinson and Pacificus Baker. The for- 
mer compiled a valuable history of the Franciscan Order 
in England, which we have had frequent occasion to con- 
sult in the course of our narrative. It was published in 
London, in 1726, under the title Collectanea Anglo- 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 331 

Minoritica or A Collectioih of the Antiquities of the Eng- 
lish Franciscans. Fr. Baker wrote a number of ascetical 
treatises. One of his works, entitled Scripture Antiquity, 
is of a controversial nature. ' ' Without much originality, ' ' 
Thaddeus observes, "all these works are remarkable for 
unction, solidity, and moderation. ' ' 

Before recounting the decline and ultimate dissolution 
of the province, we must commemorate two friars who suf- 
fered and died in prison at this time. In 1698, Fr. Paul 
Atkinson was elected definitor of the province and was sum- 
moned to London to take part in the deliberations of the 
chapter then in session. But he failed to appear, and on 
further inquiry it was learned that he had been apprehended 
for being a priest, and on his refusal to take the required 
oaths he had been condemned to perpetual imprisonment in 
Hurst Castle. His death which occurred thirty years later, 
on October 15, 1729, is thus recorded : "In Hurst prison, 
Hants died the venerable Confessor of the faith and of 
Christ's priesthood. Father Paul Atkinson, formerly pro- 
fessor of theology, definitor of the province, and a jubi- 
larian in the Order, who, during a continual martyrdom of 
thirty years, reflected honor on his prison, on our Province, 
and on the English mission ; who, though not cut off by the 
persecutor 's sword, still, as we piously trust, did not forego 
the palm of martyrdom. Wherefore we do not so much 
recommend him to the prayers of our brethren as propose 
him as a model for their imitation." 

During the religious persecution revived by the Stuart 
rising, in 1745, Fr. Germanus Holmes was seized and cast 
into Lancaster Castle. The provincial necrology commemo- 
rates him in these terms : ' ' The veneral confessor of Jesus 
Christ, Germanus Holmes, at one time professor of philos- 
ophy in our college at Douai, who, after suffering various 
insults from the insolent dregs of the populace on account 
of his priestly character, was consigned by the magistrate 
to Lancaster Castle and loaded with iron chains, where for 
four months he fought the good fight, and happily, as we 



332 FRANCISCANS AND 

hope, finished the course of his mortal life, having con- 
tracted the fever through the filthiness of the place ; but not 
without suspicion of poison administered to him by the 
wicked woman who brought him his food." 

The decline of the Second English Province became 
noticeable about the year 1770. In assigning the causes, 
Thaddeus points to the State laws then enacted against 
religious communities, which in turn necessarily meant a 
scarcity of vocations to the Order and a gradual falling off 
in men and means. In 1773, the French government, in its 
hostile attitude toward the Church and her institutions, prtP^ 
hibited youths from making religious profession before they 
had completed their twenty-first year ; and in 1790, another 
law was passed, pursuant to which no one under French rule 
was permitted to take vows in a religious Order. Douai in 
Flanders, where the English Franciscans had their novitiate 
and house of higher studies, was at the time subject to 
France, and to their dismay the friars saw how these ob- 
noxious State laws were beginning to effect the province. 
Already in 1779, they had no clerics to take up the theolog- 
ical course, and by 1790 the province numbered only forty- 
eight members. 

Matters came to a head when the French Revolution 
broke out. On December 19, 1791, the Franciscans were 
placed under arrest in their house at Douai, and two years 
later, on August 9, an order was issued by the civil authori- 
ties giving the friars one day 's time to leave the town. With 
a heavy heart, the sixteen resident friars departed for Bel- 
gium and took up their abode in a house at Tongres, which 
the Carmelites generously placed at their disposal. But 
darker days were yet to come. The triennial chapter of the 
province, held in London, on July 31, 1794, had just made 
provisions for the house at Tongres, when in the midst of 
the deliberations the friars of that place arrived with the 
sad news that their stay in Belgium was no longer possible, 
since French hordes had invaded the country and were 
threatening the lives of priests and religious. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 333 

Henceforth restricted to their mother country, the Eng- 
lish Franciscans did all in their power to avert the total 
extinction of the declining province. Friends were not 
wanting to encourage them by offering them material as- 
sistance. A novitiate was opened at Osmotherley and later 
at Aston. But applications for the order continued to be 
few and far between. In 1813, the province numbered only 
twenty-one members, and, in 1838, but nine were left to 
attend the chapter held at Clifton. At this chapter, Fr. 
Leo Edgeworth was elected provincial. But for obvious 
reasons the minister general hesitated to confirm his elec- 
tion and appointed a commissary in the person of Fr. Fran- 
cis Hendren. Meanwhile, the Sacred Congregation of the 
Propaganda had taken the matter in hand and, in January, 
1841, Rt. Rev. Thomas Joseph Brown, 0. S, B., Vicar Apos- 
tolic of the Welsh district, notified the Franciscans that the 
Holy Father had appointed him their visitor apostolic. 
With this provision, the English friars ceased to exist as a 
province. 



It will be remembered that we set out to relate the story 
of the English Franciscans during the first century of the 
Protestant Reformation. The reader, we are confident, can 
now judge for himself how wholly unfounded, as far as the 
sons of St. Francis are concerned, is the charge that schism 
and heresy was possible in England because the so-called 
"old Orders" had degenerated and looked on with indif- 
ference when the great upheaval began. That the Francis- 
cans were the first to feel the smart of Henry VIII 's venge- 
ful fury, can be accounted for solely by the fact that they 
were the first who dared to set themselves against his law- 
less policy, and that, on account of their traditional loyalty 
to the Holy See and their acknowledged infiuence with the 
masses, they were rightly designated by those in power as 
the most formidable and infiexible defenders of truth and 
justice. 



334 FRANCISCANS AND 

With them imprisoned, banished, or executed, it was a 
comparatively easy task for Queen Elizabeth to complete 
the work of her father and sever the last tie that bound 
England to the Church of Christ. All during her reign, 
however, the few surviving Franciscans were waiting for 
an opportunity to rally their scattered forces. Hence, when 
James I ascended the throne and the Catholics began to 
breathe more freely, the friars banded together and estab- 
lished what is known as the Second English Province. We 
have seen how the members of this new foundation were 
imbued with the true spirit of St. Francis, and, like their 
forefathers of the first province, labored even unto imprison- 
ment and death for the defense and propagation of the true 
faith. Five of their number died as martyrs during the 
terrible struggle that ended with the downfall of English 
royalty and the proclamation of the Puritan Common- 
wealth. Thus, throughout the century, from Henry's at- 
tack on the divine rights of the Holy See down to the na- 
tion's renunciation of the king's authority, the Franciscans 
never for a moment wavered in their defense of a just and 
holy cause. It is safe to say that, humanly speaking. Protes- 
tantism would never have gained the ascendancy in Eng- 
land, if in the beginning of the religious upheaval, the bulk 
of the clergy had been as faithful and fearless in defending 
the Catholic faith as the Franciscans. 

The End. 



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Domenichelli, Padre Teofilo, O. F. M. : II Beato Giovanni Forest 

(Prato, 1887). 
DouAi Diaries, First & Second in Records of the English Catho- 
lics (London, 1878). 
Du Boys, Albert: Catherine D'Aragon (Paris, 1880). 
Encyclopedia Britannica (Philadelphia), I-XXI. 
Felder, P. Dr. Hilarion, O. Cap.: Studien im Franziskanerorden 

(Freiburg, 1904). 
Gasquet, Cardinal Aidan, O. S. B. : English Monastic Life (New 

York, 1904). 
Gasquet, Cardinal Aidan, O. S. B. : Henry the Third and the 

Church (London, 1905). 
Gasquet, Cardinal Aidan, 0. S. B. : Henry VIII and the English 

Monasteries (London, 1889), I-II. 
Gasquet, Cardinal Aidan, O. S. B, : The Black Death (London, 

1908). 
Gasquet, Cardinal Aidan, O. S. B. : The Eve of the Refoemation 

(London, 1905). 

335 



336 FRANCISCANS AND 

Gaudentius, P., 0. F. M.: Bedeutung and Verdienste des Franz- 

ISKANERORDENS IM KaMPFE GEGEN DEN PrOTESTANTISMUS (Bozen, 

1880). 

Guerin, Mgr. Paul: Le Palmier S^raphique (Bar-le-Duc, 1872-1874), 
I-XII. 

Heimbucher, Dr. Max: Die Orden und Kongregationen der Kath- 
OLiscHEN KiRCHE (Paderbom, 1907), I-III. 

Hill, O'Dell Travers: English Monasticism (London, 1876). 

Hope^ Mrs.: Franciscan Martyrs in England (London, 1878). 

Hope, Mrs.: The First Divorce of Henry VIII (London, 1894). 

Holzapfel, P. Dr. Heribert, O. F. M.; Geschichte des Franzis- 
kanerordens (Freiburg, 1909). 

Hudson, Kev. H. N.: Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters. 

Hueber, P. Fr. Fortunatus, O. F. M.: Menologium (Muenster, 1698). 

Kirchenlexicon, Wetzer und Welter's (Freiburg), I-XII. 

Leon, Fr.: Aureole Seraphique; Engl, transl.: Lives of the Saints 
AND Blessed of the Three Orders of St. Francis — Vol. IV, 
containing a historical sketch of the English Franciscan Province. 
(Taunton, 1887.) 

Lingard, John, D. D.: History of England (New York, 1879), 
I- VIII. 

Little, A. G. : Studies in English Franciscan History (London, 
1917). 

Magliano, Fr. Panfilo da, O. F. M.: St. Francis and the Francis- 
cans, tr. from Italian (New York, 1867). 

Mason, Fr. Angelus a S. Francisco, O. F. M. : Certamen Seraphicum 
Provinciae Angliae (Quaracchi, Italy, 1885). 

Monumenta Franciscan a. Vol. I, ed. J. S. Brewer (London, 1858) ; 
Vol. II, ed. Richard Howlett (London, 1882). 

Ortolani, P. Cyrus, O. F. M. : He Causis Bkitorum et Servorum 
Dei Ordinis Minorum (Quaracchi, Italy, 1905). •► 

Parkinson, Fr. Anthony, O. F. M.: Collectanea Anglo-MinoriTica 
OR A Collection of the Antiquities of the English Francis- 
cans (London, 1726). 

Pastor, Dr. Ludwig: Geschichte der Paepste (Freiburg), I-VI. 

Pocock, Nicholas: Records of the Reformation (Oxford, Claren- 
don Press, 1870), I-II. 

Roper, William: Life of Sir Thomas More, Knt. (London, 1905). 

Sander, Nicholas : De Origine ac Progressu Schismatis Anglicani 
(Coloniae Agrippinae, 1585 j Rishton edition, 1690). 

Sannig, P. Bernardus: Cronicken der drei Orden S. Francisci 
(Prague, 1690), I-III (Parts I-VI). 

Spillmann, Joseph, S. J.: Katholikenverfolgung in England 
(Freiburg, 1900-1905), LIV. 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 337 

Spillmann, Joseph, S. J.: Die Blutzeugen der Titus Oates-Ver- 

SCHWOERUNG (Freiburg, 1901). 
Staunton, Howard: The Great Schools of England (London, 1865). 
Stone, J. M. : Faithful Unto Death (London, 1892). 
Stone, J. M.: Mary the First Queen of England (London, 1901). 
Strickland, Agnes: Lives of the Queens of England (Philadelphia, 

1899), II, in. 
Thaddeus, Rev. Father, O. F. M.: Life of Blessed John Forest 

(London, 1888). 
Thaddeus, Rev. Father, O. F. M. : The Franciscans in England, 

1600-1850 (London, 1898). 
Thaddeus, Rev. Father, O. F. M.: Walter Colman, O. F. M. in 

Franciscan Biographies (C. T. S., London, 1912). 
The Cambridge History of English Literature (Cambridge, 1907- 

1911), I-VL 
The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York), I-XV. 
Timbs, John : Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and 

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Wadding, Fr. Luke, O. F. M.: Annales Minorum, first edition, 

I- VII (Lyons, 1625-1648) ; XIX (Quaraechi, 1914) ; XX (Quarac- 

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Wadding, Fr. Luke, O. F. M.: Scriptores Ordinis Minorum (Rome, 

1650). 
Wright, Thomas: Suppression of the Monasteries (London, 1843). 



INDEX OF NAMES AND PLACES 



Abbington, Benedictine abbey of 7, 

15 
Abel, Blessed Thomas, 156 
Abrojo, friary at, 253 
Ackrick, Fr. Thomas, 200 
Adam de Marisco, Fr., 10, 19, 22 
Adam of Exeter, Fr., 22 
Adam of York, Fr., 25 
Agnellus of Pisa, Blessed, 2, 4, 5, 7, 

8 13 19 
Albert of Pisa, Fr., 4, 8, 13 
Albert of Sartiano, 31 
Alcala de Henftres, 105 
Alexander, master of Poor Priests' 

Hospice, 5 
Alexander of Hales, Fr., 25 
Allen, Cardinal William, 175, 204 
Anderton, Fr. William, 226, 315 
Anglesey in Wales, friary at, 9 
Antwerp, friary at, 33 
Ara Coeli, friary of, 196, 206 
Arthur, Prince of Wales, 27, 29, 106 
Arturus, Fr., a Monasterio, 211 
A. S. Augustino, Fr. William, 276 
A. S. Edmundo, Fr. Lawrence, 225 
Aske, Robert, 65 

A, S. Thoma, Fr. Bonaventure, 229 
Atkinson, Fr. Paul, 331 
Augustine, St., 79 
Augustinians, 11 
Aylesbury, friary at, 9 

Bacon, Fr. Roger, 24, 180 

Baker, Fr. Paciflcus, 330 

Baltimore, Lord, 326 

Barklay, Fr. Alexander, 173 

Barnes, Mr. Robert, 207, 208 

Barras, Fr. Bernardine, 33, 330 

Bartholomew Anglicus, Fr., 25 

Barton, Elizabeth, 44, 46, 92, 121 

Bartholomew of Pisa, Fr., 8, 9 

Baseham, 29 

Basset, Fr. Gregory, 201 

Baynard's Castle, 113 

Becket, St. Thomas a, 29 

Becky, James, 61 

Becmachen, Isle of Man, friary at, 

10 
Bedford, friary at, 175 
Bedingfleld, Sir Edmund, 125, 134 
Bel, Yen. Francis, 226, 230, 276, 292 
Belchiam, Ven. Thomas, 65, 72 
Bennewith, friary on island of, 6 
Bergaigne Fr. Joseph, 224, 297 

339 



Bernardine of Siena, St., 31 
Berwick, friary at, 9, 15 
Beverley, friary at, 9, 67 
Blackfriars in London, 104 
Blue Coat School (Chnst Hospital), 

180 
Bodmin, friary at, 9 

Boleyn, Anne, 35, 39, 65, 88, 110, 

144 
Bonaventure, Fr. (Sir Thomas John- 
son), 62 

Bonaventure, St., 4, 23, 224 

Bordeaux, 14 

Boston, friary at, 176 

Bosworth, 27 

Bourchier, Fr. Thomas, 49, 62, 72, 
141, 189 

Bourchier, Henry, Earl of Essex, 36 

Brasenose College, Oxford, 234 

Bremand, 83 

Brewer, J. S., 11, 12, 19, 23 

Bridgenorth, friary at, 9 

Bridgwater, friary at, 9 

Brigittines, 82 

Bristol, district of, 9 

Bristol, friary at, 9 

Brookby, Ven. Antony, 65, sqq. 

Brougham, friary at, 10 

Broughton, friary at, 9 

Brown, Fr. Antony, 169 

Brown, Rt. Rev. T. J., O. S. B., 333 

Browne, Dr. George, 52, 53 

Bruges, chapter of, 32 

Buckden, 104, 116, 121 

Buckley, Ven. Godfrey, 194, 204 

Bukkery, Fr. Henry, 59 

Bullaker, Ven. John Baptist, 226, 
251 

Bungey, Fr. Thomas, 180 

Bury, St. Edmunds, friary at, 9 

Butler, Fr. William, 23 

Caesarius, Fr., 4 
Cambray, 82 

Cambridge, district of, 9, 226 
Cambridge, friary at, 8, 9, 13 
Cambridge, university of, 23, 29 
Camm, Dom Bede, O. S. B., 149 
Campeggio, Cardinal, 111, 114 
Canock in Staffordshire, 243 
Canon, Fr. John, 25 
Canterbury, College, Oxford. 78 
Canterbury, friary at, 4, 5, 8, 9, 14, 
19, 32 



340 



FRANCISCANS AND 



Capon, Dr., Abbot of Hyde, 47, 192 
Cardiff, friary at, 9 
Carlisle, friary at, 9 
Carmarthen, friary at, 9 
Carter, Fr. Richard, 62 
Carthusians, 11, 65 
Castro, Fr. Alfonso, 65, 190 
Catherine of Aragon, Queen of En- 
land, 33, 35, 75, 87, 325 
Cauley, Mr. William, 260 
Chapman, Fr. Thomas, 180 
Chapuys, Eustace, 36, 39, 45, 60, 88, 

118, 123, 132 
Charles V, Emperor, 29, 39, 45, 60, 

81, 102 

Charles I, King of England, 230 sqq. 
Charles II, King of England, 263 
Chester, friary at, 9 
Chesterton in Warwickshire, 38 
Chichester, friary at, 9 
Clarke, Dr. John, 30 
Clement VII, Pope, 44 
Clements, Margaret, 103 
Cobbett, William, 43 
Colchester, friary at, 9, 15 
Collier, Fr. Lawrence, 195, 202 
Colman, Fr. Christopher (Combe), 

82, 230, 241, 244 
Colman, Fr. Robert, 2, 25, 226 
Cologne, university of, 23 
Compter prison in London, 272 
Consell, William, 185 

Conv 

Cornelius, Fr., 52 

Cornhill, friary at, 6 

Cort, Ven. Thomas, 65 

Cotton, Fr. Walter, 22 

Coventry, Fr. Giles, 174, 176 

Coventry, friary at, 9, 15, 18, 177 

Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of 

Canterbury, 36, 91, 118, 186 
Cromwell, Oliver, 323 
Cromwell, Thomas, 38, 39, 45, 52, 

53, 55, 63, 88, 178, 187 
Crosby Place, 83 
Cross, Fr. John, 326 
Croydon, palace of, 106 
Curson, Fr., 143 
Curwin, Dr., 35, 38, 40 
Cuthbert, Fr., 4 
Cyprus, Isle of, 34 



Dodd, Rev. Charles, 30, 44, 72, 83, 

141, 161, 234 
Dominicans, 6 
Doncaster, friary at, 9 
Dorchester, friary at, 226 
Douai, English College at, 234 
Douai, friary at, 226 
Dover, in Kent, 4 
Du Boys, 29, 35 
Dugdale, Sir William, 18 
Dumfries, friary at, 9 
Du Mont, Francis, 297 
Dundee, friary at, 9 
Dunstable, ecclesiastical court at, 

36 
Dunwich, friary at, 9 
Durham, Bishop of, 67 
Dutton, Mr., 234 

East, Fr. Augustine, 230 
Eccleston, Fr. Thomas, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 

12, 13, 14, 25 
Edgeworth, Fr. Leo, 333 
Edward I, King of England, 14, 20 
Edward II, King of England, 15 
Edward III, King of England, 14, 

15 
Edward VI, King of England, 183 
Edward, Duke of Lancaster, 14 
Edward, the Black Prince, 15, 20 
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 61, 

130, 193, 246 
Ellis, Fr. Robert, 33, 174 
Elstow, Fr. John, 35, 39, 50, 53 
Exeter, friary at, 9, 251 

Fackingham, Fr. Nicholas, 25 
Falier, Ludovico, 117 
Felder, P. Dr. Hilarion, 16, 23, 24 
Fisher, Bl. John, Bishop of Roches^ 

ter, 29, 55, 64, 96, 117 
Fitzwater, Fr. Robert, 15 
Forest, Blessed John, 37, 38, 109, 

122, 138, 144 
Fotheringhay Castle, 124 
Fox, Fr. Stephen, 80, 189, 196 
Francis I, King of France, 81 
Francis of St. Bonaventure, Fr., 

227 
Frederick II, Emperor, 20 
Fuller, historian, 175 



Davenport, Fr. Francis, 64, 141, 

224, 225, 230 
Day, Fr. Nicholas, 226 
De la Haye, Fr. John, 146 
De Marsys, 234, 258, 259, 286 
Denbigh, 328 

Dennis, Fr. George, 189, 196 
Digby, H. Kenelm, 24 
Diggs, John, 6 



Garcias, historian, 162 

Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Win- 
chester, 184 

Garnet, Father, S. J., 204, 206, 207, 
211 

Gasquet, Cardinal Aidan O. S. B., 
10, 20, 28, 42, 46, 53, 56, 59, 62, 
63, 180 

Gayton, Fr. Mathew, 15 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 



341 



Gennings, Fr. John, 203, 204, 215, 
221, 225, 244, 246, 323 

Gerard, F. John, S. J., 204 

Gloucester, friary at, 9, 15 

Goddard, Fr. William, 25, 289 

Godwyn, historian, 141 

Grafton, Richard, historian, 159 

Grantham, friary at, 9 

Graunger, Agnes, mother of Bl. 
Thomas More, 77 

Gravelines, 223 

Gray, Fr. John, 189, 198 

Greenwich, friary at, 10, 15, 56, 
141, 183, 188 

Gregory IX, Pope, 16, 25, 265 

Grimbalson, Fr. Lewis, 330 

Grimsby, friary at, 9, 179 

Grosseteste, Robert, Bishop of Lin- 
coln, 15, 19, 24 

Guilford, Sir Henry, 117 

Gunnell, William, 84 

Haddington, friary at, 9 
Haddock, Fr. James, 326 
Hamely, friary at, 9 
Hammond, Lady Elizabeth, 130, 153 
Hardwick, Fr. Francis, 330 
Harpsfield, Nicholas, 11, 35, 78, 88, 

103, 120, 121 
Harris, Dorothy, 103 
Hartlepool, friary at, 9 
Hayfield, Fr. Thomas, 61 
Haymo of Faversham, Fr., 25 
Heath, Ven. Paul, 226, 229, 272, 

315 
Hemmysley, Fr., 169, 171 
Hendren, Fr. Francis, 333 
Henry III, King of England, 4, 5, 

14, 19 
Henry IV, King of England, 21, 32 
Henry VI, King of England, 22, 32 
Henry VII, King of England, 32, 

80, 107 
Henry VIII, King of England, 5, 6, 

8, 27, 34, 44, 52, 54, 75, 142, 172, 

183, 186, 187, 192 
Henry of Coventry, Fr., 15 
Henry of Pisa, Fr., 8 
Hereford, 203 
Hereford, friary at, 9, 15 
Hilsey, John, 52, 55, 58, 61 
Hilton, Fr. John, 25 
Holmes, Fr. Germanus, 331 
Holt, Nicholas, 77 
Holy Trinity, Benedictine priory 

of, 5 
Holzapfel, P. Dr. Heribert, 20, 25, 

31 
Honorius III, Pope, 4, 5 
Hope, Mrs., 29, 36, 45, 47, 205, 234, 

247, 275 
How, historian, 141 



Howlett, Richard, 18 

Hudson, Rev. H. N., 135 

Hueber, P. Fortunatus, 64, 74, 202 

Hugh of Manchester, Fr., 20 

Hugh of Newcastle, Fr., 25 

Hull Castle, 200 

Hunt, Fr. John, 174 

Hutton, W. H., 82 

Innocent IV, Pope, 21 
Ipswich, friary at, 9 
Irwin, John, 6 

Jackson, Fr. Bonaventure, 224, 225, 
226, 229, 230 

James I, King of England, 203 

James IV, King of Scotland, 80 

James della Marca, St., 31 

Jerningham, Mr. George, 275 

John Capistran, St., 31, 32 

John, Fr., 10 

John of Kent, Fr., 15 

Johnson, Sir Thomas (Fr. Bonaven- 
ture), 67 

Jones, Fr. Gregory, 329 

Joyce of Cornhill, Fr., 10 

Julius II, Pope, 30, 106 

Kimbolton Castle, 104, 125, 132, 
134 

Kingston, Sir William, 99 
Kynton, Fr. John, 26, 34 

Lacy, Henry, Earl of Lincoln, 15 

Lambourne, Fr. Reginald, 15 

Lancaster, friary at, 9 

Langlois, M., 298 

Langton, Cardinal Stephen, 5, 14, 
196 

Langton, Dr. Henry, 14 

Langworth, Fr. Bernavdine, 329 

Latimer, Hugh, 141, 157, 161, 163 

Laud, William, Archbishop of Cau- 
tery, 231, 232 

Laurence, Fr. John, 52 

Lawrence, a S. Edmundo, 225 

Lawrence, Fr. Peter, 174 

Lawrence, Fr., of Beauvais, 4 

Layton, Dr. Richard, 187 

Lee, Rowland, 55, 122 

Le Grand, Fr. Antony, 326 

Leicester, Countess of, 14 

Leicester, district of, 226 

Leicester, friary at, 9 

Leisman, Fr. James, lay brother, 
198 

Leland, historian, 4, 175, 176, 202 

Leo X, Pope, 30, 142 

Leo XIII, 2, 168, 202 

Leon, Fr., 38 

Lewes, friary at, 9 

Lewis of Nazareth, Fr., 226 



342 



FRANCISCANS AND 



Libourne in Aquitaine, friary at, 

14 
Lincoln, friary at, 9, 15, 176, 179 
Lingard, Rev. Johji, 28, 36, 55, 59, 

122, 233 
Lisle, Fr. John, 15 
Lisle, Lord, 60 
Litchfield, 216 
Litchfield, Bishop of, 14 
Litchfield, friary at, 9, 14 
Little, A. G., 10 
Llanfaes, near Beauvais, friary 

at, 9 
London, district of, 9, 226 
London, friary at, 8, 9, 13, 179 
London, Dr., 174 
Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, 35, 

117 
Louvain, friary at, 196, 204 
Lybert, Fr., 61 
Lynn, friary at, 9 
Lyra, Fr. Nicholas de, 19 
Lyst, Fr. Richard, lay brother, 38, 

39, 138, 144, 148 
Ludlow, friary at, 10 
Luther, Martin, 30, 34, 81 

Mahoney, Ven, Charles, 323, 328 
Maidstone, friary at, 10, 15 
Marchant, Fr. Peter, 227, 318 
Marchienne, Benedictine abbey of, 

224 
Marcos, Fr., historian, 161 
Margaret, Queen of England, 14 
Maria Henrietta, consort of Charles 

I, 231, 247 
Marshalsea, a London prison, 205 
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, 

194 
Mary Tuder, Queen of England, 

189, 192 
Mason, Fr. Angelus, 34, 37, 62, 141, 

195, 202, 204, 207, 229, 230, 231, 

243, 245, 247, 258, 275, 288, 326 
Mayhew, Mr. Thomas, 237 
Mechlin, chapter of, 32 
Melioratus, Fr., 2, 5 
Melton, Fr. William, 18 
Middleton, Alice (Lady More), 75, 

83 
Middleton, Fr. Richard, 25 
Miller, Richard, 7 
Mordaunt, Lord, 154 
More, Bl. Thomas, 28, 30, 33, 64, 

75 
More, Cresacre, 79 
More, Margaret, 84 
Morley, Mr. William, 260 
Morton, Cardinal, 173 
Mountjoy, Lord, 118 



Napier, Fr. Marian, 329 

Nelson, Fr. N. N., 189, 203 
Neswick, Fr., 143 
Newark, friary at, 10, 61 
Newcastle, friary at, 9, 32 
Newgate, Prison, 68, 127, 138, 155, 

230, 232 
Nicholas III, Pope, 21 
Nigram, Fr. Robert, 15 
Northampton, friary at, 8, 9 
Norwich, friary at, 9 
Nottingham, friary at, 9 

Occham, Fr. William, 25 
Old Bailey, court of, 237, 247 
Osbaldeston, Fr. Francis, 329 
Osney, Monastery at, 15 
Oxford, district of, 5, 6, 226 
Oxford, friary at, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15 
Oxford, university of, 8, 11, 22, 23 

Palencia, chapter, of, 32 
Parkinson, Fr. Antony, 4, 5, 6, 7, 

8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 

23, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 34, 37, 

62, 63 64, 79, 174, 176, 179, 

187, 227, 330 
Paris, Matthew, 4, 10 
Paris, university of, 11, 23, 24 
Parry, Fr. Charles, 329 
Paul IV, Pope, 192 
Paul de Trinci, Bl., 31 
Payn, Fr. Hugh, 52, 53, 61 
Peckham, Fr. John, 21 
Pecock, Fr., 52, 54, 58 
Pembroke, College, Cambridge, 24 
Penrith, friary at, 10 
Perrott, Fr. George, 226, 241, 257, 

276, 318 
Peterborough, abbey church at, 

134 
Peter, Fr., Spaniard, 8 
Peter of Alcantara, Ct., 230 
Peter of Tewkesbury, Fr., 4, 8. 14 
Petty, Fr. William, 174 
Peyto, Fr. William, 35, 38, 39, 40, 

52, 53, 183, 185, 192 
Philip, II, King of Spain, 20, 188, 

189, 192 
Philip, Fr., 10 
Pickford, Fr. Jerome, 225, 226, 

276 
Pinchart, Fr., 196 
Pits, 141 

Pissotus, Fr. Paul 37 
Pius V, St., Pope, 195 
Plymouth, friary at, 10 
Pole, Cardinal, 117, 122, 188, 191, 

192 
Poletius, Dr., 277 
Pontefract, friary at, 10 



THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 



343 



Poor Priests' Hospice in Canter- 
bury, 5 

Pope, Sir Thomas, 47, 101, 205, 
234 

Powel, Lady, 259, 261 

Preston, friary at, 9, 14 

Price, Ellis, 162 

Ralph of Maidstone, Fr., 15 
Reading, friary of, 9, 174, 179 
Richard II, King of England, 21 
Richard III, King of England, 27 
Richard, Fr., of Leicester, 21 
Richard, of Devonshire, Fr., 2, 5, 

6, 8 
Richard, of Ingworth, Fr., 2, 5, 6, 

8 
Richard the Norman, Fr., 10 
Richel, Fr. John, 189, 197 
Rich, Fr. Hugh, 44, 50, 52, 53, 88, 

121 
Richmond in Surrey, 32 
Richmond in Surrey, friary at, 52, 

53, 56 
Richmond in Yorkshire, friary at, 

9 
Rich, Richard, 97 
Risby, Fr. Richard, 44, 88, 121 
Robert of Hendred, Fr., 15 
Robinson, Fr., 52, 143 
Roo, Fr. Bonaventure, 62 
Roper, William, 30, 80 
Rose, Fr. Ralph, 25 
Roxburgh, friary at, 9 

Saint-German, Christopher, 83 
Saint-Omer, English College at, 

216, 251 
Salcot, Bishop of Salisbury, 192 
Salisbury, friary at, 9, 14 
Sander, Dr. Nicholas, 63, 96, 104 
Scarborough, friary at, 9, 15 
Scotus, Ven. John Duns, 24, 187 
Sebastian, Fr., 143 
Selby, Fr. Daniel, 330 
Seymour, Jane, 186 
Shakespeare, William, 137 
Shambles of St. Nicholas, friary in, 

6 
Sharpe, Fr. Richard, 181 
Sharshille, Fr. William, 15 
Shrewsbury, friary at, 9, 13, 176 
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 66 
Simon of Montfort, 18 
Sixtu.s IV, Pope, 32 
Smithfield, 138 
Smith, Leonard, 60 
Solomon, Fr., 10, 12, 13 
Somer, Fr. John, 25 
Somerset, Duke of, 186 
Southhampton, friary at, 9, 10, 54, 

183 



Speed, historian, 175 

Spalman, Sir Henry, 29 

Spencer, F. John, S. J., 275 

Squire, F. Edward, S. J., 313 

Stafford, friary at, 9, 176, 178, 203 

Stafford, Fr. John, 172 

Stamford, friary at, 9, 20. 61, 176 

Standish, Fr. Henry, 26, 196 

Standish, Fr. John, 189, 196 

Stanwey, Fr. Oliver, 15 

Stanney, Fr. William, 203, 204 

Stapleton, William, 67, 78, 85, 86 

Stillingfleet, Dr., 326 

Stoke, friary at, 9 

Stone, J. M., 37, 44, 53, 54, 59, 60, 

159, 192, 233, 288 
Storrens, Fr. John, 194, 201 
Stow, John, historian, 38, 171 
St. Bartholemew's Hospital, 163, 

179 
St. Thomas Waterings, 25, 171, 

208 
Suffolk, Duke of, 123, 124 

Taller, Thomas (Ven. John Baptist 

Bullaker), 253 
Talbot, Fr. John, 226 
Temple-Broughton, Manor House 

of, 292 
Thaddeus, Fr., 10, 32, 168, 204, 

221, 227, 228, 243. 245 
Thomas, Fr., Spaniard, 8, Fl 
Timbs, John, 29, 134 
Toledo, convent of Poor Clares at, 

107 
Topcliffe, 199, 207, 209 
Tower Hill, 102 
Travers, John, 6 
Traversham, Fr. Thomas, 22 
Tunstal, Cuthbert, 59, 122, 200 
Turneham, Fr. Robert, 20 
Tyburn, 48, 269 
Tyssington, Fr. John, 22 

Vaughn, Stephen, 53 

Vincent of Coventry, Fr„ 10, 15 

Wadding, Fr. Luke, 2, 4, 9, 141, 
195, 315 

Wadsworth, James, 247, 260 

Waire, Fr. John, 169 

Waler, Fr. John, 15 

Wall, Ven. John (Joachim of St. 
Anne), 323, 326 

Walsingham, friary at, 9, 15, 175 

Walter, de Burgh, Fr., 10 

Walton, William, 202 

Ward, F. William, 232, 234, 241, 
258 

Ware, friary at, 9, 14, 173 

Warham, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 46 



344 



FRANCISCANS AND 



Warrington, friary at, 10 

Warwick, Earl of, 14 

Webb, Francis, (Ven. John Wall), 

328 
Weever, historian, 175 
Westminster, 37 
Wicksted, Fr. Polycarp, 326 
Wiclif, John, 28 
William, Fr., 1, 15, 20, 22 
William of England, Fr., 1 
William of Esseby, Fr., 2, 7 
William of Florence, Fr., 3 
William of London, 10 
William of Nottingham, Fr., 13 
William of York, Fr., 15 
William, Prince of Orange, 326, 

329 
Willoughby, Fr. Giles, 230 
Willoughby, Lady, 131 
Winchelsea, friary at, 9 
Wichelsey, Fr. John, 15 
Winchester, friary at, 9, 10 
Wisbeach, Castle, 205 
Wiseman, Mrs. Jane, 207, 208 



Wolsey, Cardinal, 35, 82, 86, 111, 

141 
Wolward, Fr. Thomas, 23 
Wood, Antony, historian, 4, 6, 7, 

23, 141, 180, 195, 231, 234 
Woodcock, Ven. Martin, 311 
Woodford, Fr. William, 22 
Wood, Fr., 178 
Wooton, Mr., 237 
Worcester, friary at, 9, 14, 179, 

226 
Wrest, Fr. Lewis, 227, 324 
Wright, Thomas, 175 
Wriothesley, historian, 158, 159, 

161, 162 
Wriothesley, Sir Thomas, 62, 63 

Yarmouth, friary at, 9 
York, district of, 9, 226 
York, friary at, 9, 15 
Ypres, friary at, 226 

Zarmestre, Fr., 15 




